Say what?

[David Bergdahl]

a variant on "clammed up"?

On 1/16/07, Bill Lemay <blemay0 at mchsi.com> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bill Lemay <blemay0 at MCHSI.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Say what?
>
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>
> This is an ultra-long shot, but in an early Star Trek episode ("Amok
> Time")
> McCoy calls Spock "... as tight-lipped as an Aldebaran shell mouth."
>
> Bill Le May
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Say what?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > The [New England] Patriots are notorious around the NFL for being
> > _shell-mouthed_ about injuries [to their players].
> >
> > Pierce, Charles P.
> > Moving The Chains.
> > New York, 2006.
> >
> > "Shell-mouthed"?
> >
> > -Wilson
> > --
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -----
> > -Sam'l Clemens
> >
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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