speed humps

[Ben Zimmer]

On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 8:00 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 11:31 PM, paul johnson wrote:
>
> > Doesn't anyone else remember deadmen?
> > Or sleeping policemen
>
> I can recall hearing the designation "sleeping policeman" only once in my
> life, in NYC in the early 1970s.  It sounded very affected and cumbersome.

For more on the history of "sleeping policemen" (and international
equivalents), see my Language Log post:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004303.html

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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