Reporter's query on "give the shirt off one's back"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Brendan, fyi. --- Gerald (with cc. to ads-l and B. Popik)



>From archives of the American Dialect Society.  The sender was independent scholar Barry Popik.


From:    [log in to unmask] <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A2%3Dind0206B%26L%3DADS-L%26P%3DR85>
Reply-To:        American Dialect Society <[log in to unmask] <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?LOGON=A2%3Dind0206B%26L%3DADS-L%26P%3DR85> >
Date:    Sat, 8 Jun 2002 21:46:07 EDT
Content-Type:    text/plain
Parts/Attachments:       Parts/Attachments<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/images/b-paperclip.gif>    text/plain <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A3=ind0206B&L=ADS-L&E=7bit&P=4151&B=--&T=text%2Fplain;%20charset=US-ASCII>  (77 lines)


<snip>

RUSSIA AS IT REALLY IS
by Carl Joubert
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company
1905 (copyright 1904)
<snip>

Pg. 92:  "To give the shirt off one's back" has become a common metaphorical
phrase in our own country, but I could not believe that it was a form of
benevolence that was actually practised.

<snip>

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