"Tell It Like It Is"

[Wilson Gray]

My impression is that "Tell it like it is!" enjoyed a brief vogue as a
fixed, slang phrase - i.e. I don't recall that people said much in the
way of, e.g. "He tried to bulljive me, but, after I squared his ass
off, he _told it like it was_." - in the 'Sixties and then died out.
Or it could be that it merely seems that way to me because I was never
able to get sufficiently behind the phrase to use it myself.

-Wilson

On Feb 18, 2008 8:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Tell It Like It Is"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My impression after decades of reading metric tons of stuff is that few copy-editors at any time in the past hundred and twenty-five years  - at least - would alter a "Tell it like it is" within dialogue.  The only exception I can think of might have been in cases where an educated, influential public figure was being quoted. That sort of person's grammar might get tidied up.
>
>   Gut well as brain tells me that "tell it like it is" _should_ have been frequent in general speech all that time. But the cites say otherwise.
>
>   Reminds me of the "yeah" enigma discussed here some time ago.
>
>   JL
>
> "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
> Subject: Re: "Tell It Like It Is"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Like" has been an alternative for "as" in various contexts for a
> long time, I think.
>
> This is one pattern, I guess:
>
> "Like you said, ..." = "As you said, ..."
>
> "Leave it like it is" = "Leave it as it is"
>
> "Tell it like it is" = "Tell it as it is"
>
> "It tastes good, like it should" = "It tastes good, as it should"
>
> etc.
>
> Offhand I suppose that these forms with "like" (and the ones with
> "as") have been used routinely in mainstream speech for well over 100
> years. But the versions with "like" will be scarce in the published
> record (until recently) because they are/were considered 'informal'
> or 'incorrect'. This is just my casual notion; perhaps some of the
> savants can correct me.
>
> Plenty of old instances of "Tell it as it is" with seems-to-me
> appropriate meaning.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.7/1285 - Release Date: 2/18/2008 5:50 AM
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
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

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