"Tell It Like It Is"

[Wilson Gray]

I'm accustomed to hearing "Tell it!" used together with "Preach it!"
during church services, where "it" equals "the truth." But that could
be a Methodist or an East-Texas thing.

-Wilson

On Feb 18, 2008 1:26 PM, Brenda Lester <alphatwin2002 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Brenda Lester <alphatwin2002 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Tell It Like It Is"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The phrase was common back in the mid-sixties, and I still hear it used today.
>   Sometimes it's shorten to "tell it" in the south.
>
>   bl
>
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "Tell It Like It Is"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If Cosell used it as a catchphrase, that certainly would have helped
> spread it use to the general public. But was it ever commonly used by
> the general public? I never had occasion to socialize with the general
> public before the 'Seventies, by which time the phrase had long since
> ceased to be hip. So, if if its use by the general public was ever the
> case, it's news to me..
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Feb 16, 2008 5:28 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
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> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: "Shapiro, Fred"
> > Subject: "Tell It Like It Is"
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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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>
> --
> 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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--
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