freten by sowe

[Jonathan Lighter]

Naw, to make it funnier!:

  1923 _Dialect Notes_ IV 394: _Since the hogs et up m' brother_ adv. phr.  A very long time.

  1929 Dashiell Hammett _Red Harvest_ [rpt. N.Y.: Vintage, 1992] 203: I haven't laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother

  1944_PADS_  (N. 2) 9: I haven't laughed so much since the hog et grandma.

  1990 T. Coraghessan Boyle _Budding Prospects_ (N.Y.: Penguin) 186: I haven't had this much fun since the hogs ate my baby sister.

  1999  _CowPokin' Fun Guestbook_ (Dec. 9)  [http://www.geocities.com/~cowpokinfun/ geobook2-99.html]: Boy howdy. I've [sic] haven't enjoyed anything so much since the hogs ate my brother.

  2003 _NJC Well-digger's ass_ [http://www.mail-archive.com/joni@jmdl.com/msg26762.html] Ain't had so much fun since the hogs ate Grandpa.

  2007 Re: Haven't had so much fun since_  [www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/52/messages/864.html]:  When I was growing up, my family used to say the phrase "I haven't had so much fun since the hogs ate my little brother". Has anyone else heard this phrase or was my family just weird?

  ca2007 Beth Boswell Jacks _Speaking Southern_ [usads.ms11.net/sospeak.html] : Mama declared at the wedding reception that “she hadn’t had such fun since the hogs ate grandma.”

  You city folks sure ain't got no sense o' humor!

  JL


"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
Subject: Re: freten by sowe
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At 3/2/2008 10:08 AM, William Salmon wrote:

  There's a horrifying line in The
Knight's Tale about a pig eating a

child.


The sowe freten the child right in the cradel...

I assume "freten" (fressen) rather than (?) "eten"
(essen) to make it more horrifying?


Joel


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