"Tell It Like It Is"

Sat Feb 16 23:05:16 UTC 2008

Fred,

  The rhythm and blues classic, "Tell It Like It Is" came out in 1966, but I'm sure the phrase was around long before that.

  bl

"Shapiro, Fred" <Fred.Shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Shapiro, Fred"
Subject: "Tell It Like It Is"
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Can anyone illuminate the origins of the phrase "tell it like it is"? Wikipedia says Howard Cosell had a catchphrase, "I'm just telling it like it is," but I am not sure how that fits in to the history of the expression.

Fred Shapiro

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org