rooves

[Amy West]

Oh, dear G-d almighty, I cannot believe that this old myth/falsehood
has reappeared here.

Mark, pick my fainting medievalist self up off the floor. I'm
assuming that James Landau simply contributed this cite and is not
the author of the text. That collection of etymythologies, which
includes this one, that have made the e-mail circuit since the early
90s is the bane of my existence. I nearly burst a gasket when one of
the managers at the museum mindlessly started rattling some of them
off, including this one...

---Amy West

>Date:    Sun, 3 Feb 2008 20:15:29 -0800
>From:    Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>Subject: rooves
>
>Cadillac ran a commercial today, mentioning "sunrooves".
>
>The only mention I find in the ADS archives on "rooves" is
>http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0501D&L=ADS-L&P=R4217&I=-3
>
>"The phrase comes from the days when most roofs were thatch.  Now thatch
>contains seeds, which means it attracts mice and rats who eat the
>seeds.  To get the rhodents out of their rooves, people would turn their
>cats and dogs loose on the roof.  When it rained, the felines and
>canines were washed off the roof, hence the expression." - James A. Landau
>
>(Note that this citation also includes the spelling "rhodents".)
>
>Benjamin Barrett
>a cyberbreath for language life
>livinglanguages.wordpress.com

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