green behind the ears (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Thanks, Bill. I've added these as an update to the Language Log post.

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 6:28 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
> 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-----
> > 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

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