"Toenailed": of nails
Tom Zurinskas
truespel at HOTMAIL.COM
Sun Jan 23 10:22:34 UTC 2011
I've never thought of this before but perhaps the term "toenailed" comes from nailing the bottom of a stud to the floor plate while holding it steady with the toe of your shoe. The nail is driven from the side of the stud down into the plate and backpressure is needed from your foot to keep the stud (verticle 8ft 2x4 which forms wallls) still.
Tom Zurinskas, from Conn 20 yrs, then Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 8.
Free English-based phonetic converter, URL and text , at truespel.com
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: "Toenailed": of nails
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Jan 22, 2011 at 6:57 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > Wilson, did your correspondent say "toenailed",
> > as your message quoted her, or
> > "tailnailed"
>
> She said, "toenailed," Joel.
>
> _*Tailnailed_ is the consequence of a senior moment followed by the
> usual failure-to-read-over-before-Sending.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> –––
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> –Mark Twain
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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