"Village Idiot" (1907?) and "Texas Village Idiot" (1997?)

[Scot LaFaive]

I just did a quick search of Google and Google Books for "(missing/without)
their/its village idiot" and found nada on GB and roughly 100 on Google,
nearly all referring to Bush. So it seems to have only started occurring in
this phrase from around 2000. I don't remember if anyone else had done
searches on it and what was found (already deleted those emails), so let me
know if it (the whole phrase) is older and not referring to Bush.
Scot


>From: Bapopik at AOL.COM
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "Village Idiot" (1907?) and "Texas Village Idiot" (1997?)
>Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 16:15:25 EST
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM
>Subject:      Re: "Village Idiot" (1907?) and "Texas Village Idiot" (1997?)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Yes, "village idiot" is certainly a quotation as Molly Ivins and  the
>bumper
>stickers have it. The first citation of "village idiot" may or may  not be
>of
>worth as a quotation.
>...
>The 1907 citation from OED is:
>1907 _G. B. SHAW_
>(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s2.html#g-b-shaw)
>Major Barbara 148, I myself have  had a village idiot exhibited  to me as
>something irresistibly  funny.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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