Fwd: On the nose

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

(in full speculative mode): If something can be "easy on the eyes" or "hard on the eyes," maybe something could also "be hard on the nose" (smell very  bad).  Then by ellipsis: "be on the nose" (smell very bad).
 
Gerald Cohen
 
 

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Jonathon Green
Sent: Sun 11/5/2006 1:00 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Fwd: On the nose



This use of 'on the nose' is indeed Australian and means both literally
stinking and, by extension, morally and aesthetically offensive. There
are examples of the latter use, which would seem to be that found in the
story, from the 1940s.

JG

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