A new use of "duh?"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My grandparents both used to say, "in olden days," and I still say it. It has a somewhat archaic sound.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: A new use of "duh?"
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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 wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> 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 wrote:
> >>
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society
> >> Poster: Laurence Horn
> >> 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 t=
o
> 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
> >>
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> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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