gives good camera

[Tom Zurinskas]

Makes for a fun read.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:17:55 +0900
> From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
> Subject: Re: gives good camera
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Laurence Horn
> Subject: Re: gives good camera
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:40 AM -0400 7/28/08, Baker, John wrote:
>> Current use is probably heavily
>>influenced by the 1990 Madonna song Vogue: They
>>had style, they had grace | Rita Hayworth gave
>>good face.
>>
>> I don't see any earlier "give good
>>face," but from the 11/7/1988 L.A. Times there
>>is: Face it, Jerome knows how to give good
>>meeting.
>>
>> I've listened to the Madonna song enough
>>that "give good X" no longer sounds unseemly to
>>me.
>>
>>
>>John Baker
>
> I remember the putative graffito circulated in
> Hollywood a bit earlier: "Edith Head gives good
> costume" (or "gives good wardrobe").
>
> LH
>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: American Dialect Society
>>[mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>James Harbeck
>>Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 11:13 PM
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject: Re: gives good camera
>>
>>>Is it only the elderly who find this idiom (see HDAS s.v. "give") just
>>>a we= e bit unseemly for daytime TV?
>>
>>I can recall seeing "give good meeting" and
>>"give good lunch" back in the '80s; they were,
>>of course, playing on "head," but this turn of
>>phrase (give good X) seems by now to have been
>>around long enough that it's getting tame and
>>may even no longer have the resonances it first
>>had
>>-- sort of like how "jerk" (to describe an
>>unpleasant person) for many people doesn't seem
>>to be a masturbation reference now. I confess if
>>I were to hear "He gives good camera" from, say,
>>a news anchor, it might make me snarf my
>>beverage at first, but I can't say it would seem
>>unutterably outré to me (of course, I'm only 40).
>>
>>James Harbeck.
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

_________________________________________________________________
Time for vacation? WIN what you need- enter now!
http://www.gowindowslive.com/summergiveaway/?ocid=tag_jlyhm

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