Quote: [Remark on death of Calvin Coolidge] How can they tell? (antedating Dorothy Parker 1936)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/18/2010 10:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>1892 William S. Walsh _Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities_ (Phila.:
>Lippincott) 1010: It was a popular saying about the taciturn Moltke, applied
>in no uncomplimentary spirit, that he could be "silent in seven languages."
>These words were first used by Schleiermacher with reference to the very
>eminent and very modest philologist Emanuel Bekker (see letter of
>Zelter to Goethe,
>March 15, 1830).

Apparently later becoming just another semantic inversion, when
applied to Cal et al.

Joel

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