Media inquiry: "a hop, skip, and a jump"

[Mark Davies]

>From the OED:

(1760) Tr. Shandy (ed. 3) I. xii. 48. " and if the subject was started in the fields with a hop , skip, and a jump, at the end of it."
(1816) F. BURNEY. Lett. 2 Apr., " Your kind father.. instantly ran downstairs, with a hop , skip, and a jump"
(1858) Upper Rhine v. ?2 (1860) 265. "It seems literally but a hop , skip, and a jump, from one.. shelf of crags to the other"
(1906) Smart Set June 102/1 "and hop-skip-and-jump into the train. To go hop , skip and jump over the earth's surface"
 -- and later ones as well.

Mark D.

============================================
Mark Davies
Professor of (Corpus) Linguistics
Brigham Young University
(phone) 801-422-9168 / (fax) 801-422-0906
Web: davies-linguistics.byu.edu

** Corpus design and use // Linguistic databases **
** Historical linguistics // Language variation **
** English, Spanish, and Portuguese **
============================================

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Cohen, Gerald Leonard
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:21 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Media inquiry: "a hop, skip, and a jump"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Media inquiry: "a hop, skip, and a jump"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi all,
>    Brendan O'Connor of ESPN Magazine just e-mailed me asking about the
> origin of "a hop, skip  and a jump."  Is it in any way connected with the
> triple jump in the track and field sport?
>
>    His deadline is tomorrow, although it might possibly be stretched to
> Thursday.  Can anyone help on this?
>
> Gerald Cohen
> gcohen at mst.edu
>
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: "OConnor, Brendan" <Brendan.OConnor at espn3.com>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:18:40 +0000
> To: <gcohen at mst.edu>
> Conversation: Media inquiry
> Subject: Media inquiry
>
> Dear Mr. Cohen,
>
> I'm an editor at ESPN Magazine working on piece about track and field event
> the triple jump. Trying to determine origin of expression "a hop, skip and a
> jump" to see if it is in any way connected to the sport. (My track source
> thinks it's doubtful as they don't actually skip, but rather do a hop, step
> and a jump.) Any insights most appreciated. ....
>
>
> Best Regards,
> Brendan O'Connor
> 212-515-1054
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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