lipstick on a pig

[Benjamin Barrett]

In real estate, lipstick on a pig means doing some quick, cheap
cosmetic fixes to try and boost the value of a house that's in poor
condition.

So it's pretty much the same concept, though the situation is
different. BB

On Sep 10, 2008, at 7:02 AM, David A. Daniel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: lipstick on a pig
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Pretty much the silk purse from a sow's ear concept, is it not?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of
> Charles Doyle
> Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:28 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: lipstick on a pig
>
>
> The "lipstick on a pig" proverb is probably a variant of "You can
> dress up a
> pig, but it's still a pig" or "You can dress a pig in silk (bows,
> etc.) . .
> . ," which may be older.  In Thomas Fuller's _Gnomologia_ (1732): "A
> hog in
> armor is still a hog"; I'm not sure that's quite the same, though (the
> phrase "a hog in armor" had its own separate existence, referring to
> extreme
> personal awkwardness).
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:32:03 -0400
>> From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>> Subject: lipstick on a pig
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>
>>
>> There's a kerfuffle over Obama saying "You can put lipstick on a pig
>> -- it's still a pig," which the McCain campaign is claiming refers to
>> Sarah "pitbull with lipstick" Palin. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen
>> Psaki is quoted as saying, "That expression is older than my
>> grandfather's grandfather and it means that you can dress something
>> up
>> but it doesn't change what it is."
>>
>> How old is the expression, really? A quick database check doesn't
>> turn
>> up anything before 1985:
>>
>> ---
>> Washington Post,  Nov. 15, 1985, p. C1 (Nexis)
>> KNBR, the AM radio station carrying Giants baseball games, had raised
>> $20,000 toward the construction of a new downtown stadium. The board
>> of supervisors, reluctant to commit to such a project, asked if they
>> couldn't use the money to renovate Candlestick Park. "That," replied
>> KNBR personality Ron Lyons, "would be like putting lipstick on a
>> pig."
>> ---
>>
>> There are earlier cites for "putting lipstick on a corpse," but
>> that's
>> a bit different.
>>
>> ---
>> http://www.osmre.gov/legishistory/publication92-10.htm
>> COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE
>> 92nd CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION
>> DECEMBER 1971 SERIAL-NO: Serial No. 92-10
>> MEMORANDUM OF THE CHAIRMAN
>> "Like putting lipstick on a corp[o]se," is how current strip-mine
>> reclamation efforts were described to me on a recent trip to West
>> Virginia.
>> ---
>>
>> --Ben Zimmer
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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