noodleback

[Jonathan Lighter]

Victor, you're thinking of "noodlepants."

(I thought I made that up just now; then I found 13,000 raw Googlits.)

JL

On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 3:53 AM, 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: noodleback
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There are some instances of a similar trope "noodle spine" starting in
> 1999 (or earlier). The 2010 instance refers to a person as a
> noodle-spine. The 1999 instance uses the phrase "noodle spine types".
> Some examples refer to the physical spine. The connotative
> implications for the character of an individual with a "noodle spine"
> vary. The 2008 example seems to be only about a physical condition:
>
> Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
> From: "D. Perry"
> Date: 1999/02/20
> Subject: Re: Message from Ruger
> It is a sad commentary on today's society with the NICS but with
> Feinstein, Schumer and all the other noodle spine types that don't
> care about freedom, ...
>
> Here are some unverified examples in Google Books:
>
> How to Lasso a Cowboy
> Jodi Thomas, Patricia Potter, Emily Carmichael - 2004 - 378 pages -
> Google eBook - Preview
> On his fifteenth birthday he'd up and left. Colin had been both
> furious and embarrassed that his only son "had a limp noodle spine."
>
> Athena Force: Books 1-6 - Page 211
> Justine Davis - 2006 - Google eBook - Preview
> Bravado starched up the man's noodle spine now that the shock had worn off.
>
> Stability, Sport, and Performance Movement: Great Technique ... - Page 273
> Joanne Elphinston - 2008 - 351 pages - Preview
> The difference in feeling between a neutral (arrow) spine and an
> unstable (noodle) spine.
>
> King of Sword and Sky
> C. L. Wilson - 2010 - 480 pages - Google eBook - Preview
> Honestly, Lillis could be such a noodle-spine. 滴e's been here all
> week, and all the guards wave at him when he walks by.
>
> On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 8:44 PM, 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:      noodleback
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 2011
> >
> http://personals.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2011/03/tea-party-rails-against-budget-deal
> > (March
> > 31):
> > But at the [Tea Party] rally, GOP leaders were in the crosshairs.
> Katherine
> > Dirr, an activist from Boehner's district, told the crowd: "I say to the
> > Republican leadership -- take off your lace panties, stop being
> noodlebacks.
> > Our republic depends on you."
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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> 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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org