"just one letter away"

[Charles C Doyle]

The Roman playwright Plautus in _Rudens_ (5.2.17-19), on a mendacious medical man:

Gripus:  . . . Quid tu?  Num medicus, quaeso, es?
Labrax:  Immo edepol una litera plus sum quam medica.
Gripus:      Tum tu / Mendicus es?

The "medicus"/"mendicus" wordplay has also come from the pen of Sir Thomas More (1518), Thomas Nash (1599), and John Owen (1606).

English epigrams from the 16th and 17th centuries feature the difference of one letter (or so) between "lawyer" and "liar."  And the motif is probably implicit (at least) in the venerable "womb"/"tomb" parallel.

--Charlie

________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 1:20 PM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ah, but the economy and implied "logic" of being "just one letter away"
seems to be missing. The recent examples imply not  just "related" but
"virtually indistinguishable."

JL



On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 12:46 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "just one letter away"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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