"What part of 'No!' ...?"

[Baker, John]

        Westlaw has three uses from 1989, all involving state and local
politics. The earliest is this 6/11/1989 example beginning an article in
the Houston Chronicle:


<<AUSTIN AUSTIN - " What part of NO don't you understand?"

The sign, posted in several places on the walls of the House
Appropriations Committee's meeting room, elicited nervous grins from
state bureaucrats and lobbyists who had survived the painful budget cuts
of 1986 and 1987.

The budget writers sitting behind the big horseshoe-shaped table still
uttered the dreaded, two-letter word a lot more than their audience
cared to hear, but they also rediscovered the political pleasure of
being able to say, "yes.">>


        Slightly earlier is this example from Google Groups, 4/13/1989,
recounting the contributions to a project made by various players at a
high-tech company:


<<Doug "Doc" Moran taught us all the different meanings of "NO" :-)
(What part of NO don't you understand?)>>



        So it seems that teen sexual pressure was not the original
context.



John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Charles Doyle
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 2:28 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "What part of 'No!' ...?"

Lexis/Nexis yields a 1989 instance from the Washington Post (26 Oct.),
noting the expression as a button-inscription.

--Charlie
____________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:19:26 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: "What part of 'No!' ...?"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>This has become a big-time cliche' over the last few years, right there
with the somewhat older "Read my lips!"
>
>  Here's the earliest I've found :
>
>  1992  _L.A. Times_ (Washington ed.) (July 8) B6 [cited at:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.med.aids/browse_thread/thread/72ca435
d6d1d391f/6fc718634a554f98?lnk=st&q=%22what+part+of+no+don%27t+you+under
stand%22+1991&rnum=9#6fc718634a554f98] : The spots all involve teenagers
and how they handle the peer pressure to have sex.  "Just what part of
'no' don't you understand?" a teenager tells her boyfriend.
>
>  JL
>

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