green behind the ears (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

You found "(not yet) dry behind the ears" in 1873.




[no title] The Daily Ohio Statesman (Columbus, OH) Thursday, May 09,
1850; Issue 846/759; p 3 col D
"Why, you irreclaimable donkey, don't you know the "notice" was an
advertisement?  When <i> will </i> you get dry behind the ears? -- <i>
Springfield Rep., (Whig.)</i>"

And wet behind the ears:

[No title] Kansas City Star 1888-07-25; page 2 col 1
"They are all statesmen in the "sunflower state," from Senators INGALLS
and PLUMB down to the new emigrant who is, figuratively speaking, "still
wet behind the ears." "

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 4:06 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: green behind the ears
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      green behind the ears
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> Some of you may have noticed Barack Obama use the peculiar
> expression "green behind the ears" in the Oct. 7 presidential
> debate. I explored the history of the phrase in my Word
> Routes column, with a follow-up on Language Log:
>
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1572/
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=727
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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