"just one letter away"

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is an example of  "just one letter away" transformative word play
in the 1600's and the same example in 1900.

The introduction to the "Collected Writings" of Elizabeth Jane Weston
(2000) says "one indication of her eminence is the fact that Thomas
Farnaby's 1634 list of eminent ancient and modern writers, his Index
Poeticus, published in London, includes her as one of only seven
English writers, and the only woman of any place or time.". Excerpt:

The merest trifle sets kindred spirits at odds:
  a single letter's difference changes eros to eris.

http://books.google.com/books?id=MhDq26Ua1tQC&q=eros#v=snippet&

A few centuries later:

1900 January, Everybody's Magazine, The Twenty-Seventh Letter of the
Alphabet by Lucy Cleveland, Page 3, The North American Company, New
York.

Come to think of it, there's just one letter that differentiates eris
and eros: discord and desire.

http://books.google.com/books?id=RGoXAQAAIAAJ&q=eris#v=snippet&

Admittedly, the first transformation is not a "humorous formula"
unless it is a melancholy humor.

Garson

On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 11:41 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "just one letter away"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Stephen Colbert pointed out last week that, indisputably, "Reason is just
> one letter away from treason."
>
> A search shows that, as a humorous formula, "just one letter away" has been
> in traceable under-the-radar use for about a decade.
>
> Perhaps it's popped up occasionally since literacy evolved. However, the
> earliest I can find online is from 2000.  The first time I heard it was
> probably around that time - on _The Daily Show_, in fact.  Jon Stewart (who
> took over the show in 1999) was "interviewing" somebody (possibly Colbert or
> Mo Rocca) who said, "Remember, 'Freud' is just one letter away from
> 'fraud.'"
>
> It could not have been after early 2005, when we moved from the house I
> heard it in.  Rocca left the show in 2003.  My "feeling" is that it was
> earlier than that.
>
> JL
>
>  --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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