[FL-LIST]

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sun Oct 18 18:23:25 UTC 2009


Poor Ron, without access on his airplane to
Wickipedia either.  From the article "Teaching grandmother to suck eggs":

"Teaching grandmother to suck eggs is an English
saying, meaning that a person is giving advice to
someone else about a subject that they already
know about (and probably more than the first person)."

Joel

At 10/18/2009 01:25 PM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>The idiom is familiar to me in US folk speech,
>but only as a generalized insult with no
>specific semantic content (as in "you suck
>eggs"). Do British crannies know how to suck eggs? Why would they want to?
>
>I am on an airplane and  not where I can consult the DARE.
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:         Peter French <jpf at JPFRENCH.COM>
>Date:         Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:59:12
>To: <FORENSIC-LINGUISTICS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
>Subject: [FL-LIST]
>
>There's a missing grandmother in there
>somewhere. To teach your granny to suck eggs is
>to teach an old dog tricks he or she already knows.
>Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ronald Butters <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
>Date:         Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:51:54
>To: <FORENSIC-LINGUISTICS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
>Subject: [FL-LIST]
>
>What does "teach to suck eggs" mean?
>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:         Maurice Varney <mhv890 at AOL.COM>
>Date:         Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:05:26
>To: <FORENSIC-LINGUISTICS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK>
>Subject: [FL-LIST]
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Grant, Tim <t.d.grant at ASTON.AC.UK>
>To: FORENSIC-LINGUISTICS at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>Sent: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:59
>Subject: [FL-LIST] Public service interpreting conference - Aston 2010
>
>
>Dear Tim,
>
>
>
>I don't know if you have finished your work on
>the Hampshire poison pen letters.
>
>
>
>I used to be something of an expert on English
>children's comics and often bought a whole
>week's for students to analyse
>style,language,purpose,inspiration,etc.,I
>don'tknow if you think the drawings in your
>letters are original or derivative and simply
>copies.It might be worth looking at a week's
>comics.I'm a bit out of date myself,but some
>comics haven't changed for decades.Japanese
>inspired MANGA comics are another field worth looking at.
>
>
>
>Sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs.
>
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>
>Maurice Varney
>
>N€™êâq©Ã‰©^rÔ¨r'­Êm§ÿðæz¸œjwbjWœ¶ à

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



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