fun with phrases

[Jonathan Lighter]

"(and) changed the rules of X forever."

A favorite of TV documentaries. Almost needless to say: no 19th C. hits at
GB.

Earliest at GB is allegedly from the _Atlantic_ in 1987 (snippet not
verified):

"They simply went on doing what they did best — quizzes, long dinners,
longer cocktail parties — until a series of unrelated events *changed the
rules of their beloved game forever*."

JL
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 9:22 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I am assuming you're jesting on both A and B (I take it, it's meant to
> be a parody on Yiddish jokes). "Sausage" is "kiełbasa" and diminutive
> for "cat" is "kicia", not "kishka". The Russian diminutive for "cat" is
> "kisia", which is pronounced nearly the same, or "kiska", which is
> similar, but not identical to "kishka". Neither has any connection to
> "kishka" (Russian) or "kiszka" (Polish), other than one's gut is used
> for various purposes (e.g., strings for musical instruments) and the
> other is wrapped in gut. As such, my sense of humor fails me with
> respect to this fanciful dialog. Perhaps it's the amount of sleep I got
> last night with cats jumping all over me... or the kiełbasa I ate
> earlier...
>
> VS-)
>
> On 10/4/2011 8:55 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 8:41 PM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>
>  wrote:
> >> "kishka" is Slavic>>Yiddish for "gut" or
> >> "intestines".
> > A. "Kishka'?! Why have you named your kitten "Intestine"?
> > B. It's not named "Intestine." "Kishka" means *sausage" in Polish.
> > It's named "Sausage," because it's such a fat little thing."
> >
> >   "Un faux ami," as the French say.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
>
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