A new use of "duh?"

[Wilson Gray]

True, with regard to the algorthm, but you didn't have Google at your
fingertips, back in the olden days.

Before "back in the day" became hip, "(back) in the olden [sic] days" was
standard in BE. I was reminded of that by its use by Granddad in today's
_Boondocks_. I haven't the foggiest idea as to why it's "olden" and not
simply "old." But, as they say in Vietnam-War memoirs, "there it is."

-Wilson

On 3/6/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: A new use of "duh?"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10:03 PM -0500 3/6/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >You can't catch me every time, Lar. I mea-culpa'd and made the necessary
> >correction several hours ago. Nah nah nah nah naah nah! ;-)
> >
> >-Wilson
>
> Ah, indeed.  The culpa is mea; sorry about the e-mailatio praecox.
> On the other hand, I will still stake the claim, until disproved, to
> have written the first linguistics dissertation (1972) to include a
> treatment of "X doesn't know shit from Shinola" (Chapter 3, fn. 13),
> even if I don't provide nearly as systematic an algorithm as you did
> for distinguishing the two products in question.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On 3/6/06, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>  -----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      Re: A new use of "duh?"
> >>
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  At 7:10 PM -0500 3/5/06, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>  >
> >>  >The passage of time probably explains everything. No shit (Sherlock)
> / no
> >>  >shit (Shinola) dates to the late '40's - early '50's in speech. That
> it
> >>  >should have precisely the same meaning a half-century later is not to
> be
> >>  >expected.
> >>
> >>  Interesting.  I'm familiar with the former of these (which would of
> >>  course be transparent in any case, even if I can't quite picture Dr.
> >>  Watson muttering the line) but not the latter, but on the other hand
> >>  that's the very same old Shinola (brown shoe polish) that shoes...er,
> >>  shows up elsewhere in the classic "X can't tell shit from Shinola",
> >>  one of my favorite entries in the ass v. hole-in-the-ground
> >>  indiscriminabilia sweepstakes.
> >>
> >>  Larry
> >>
> >>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org