ADS-L Digest - 6 Mar 2006 to 7 Mar 2006 (#2006-67)

[Geoffrey S. Nathan]

>
> Subject:
> Re: A new use of "duh?"
> From:
> Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Date:
> Tue, 7 Mar 2006 04:25:24 -0800
>
>
> 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?"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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."
>
>
Cole Porter's song 'Anything Goes' (from the show of the same name) beings:

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.


Geoffrey S. Nathan <geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
Faculty Liaison, Computing and Information Technology,
                  and Associate Professor of English
Linguistics Program                 Phone Numbers
Department of English               Computing and Information Technology:   (313) 577-1259
Wayne State University              Linguistics (English):   (313) 577-8621
Detroit, MI, 48202                  IT Fax: (313) 577-1338


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