"spend a penny" -- the TLS is at it again.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Could be. But "spend a penny" seems like a very vague excuse.

My grandfather used to "see a man about a dog," but that referred to
any sort of sudden departure from a small group including, but not
restricted to, the "business" we're talking about.

JL

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 3:04 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "spend a penny" -- the TLS is at it again.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just a guess, but perhaps it's another business-referencing euphemism for
> doing one's business. I've heard people say, "I've got to see a man about a
> horse" when they're going to use the bathroom---but, I think
> that means urination is involved. What did Freud say about horses?
>
> Eric
>
> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: "spend a penny" -- the TLS is at it again.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> At 10/7/2011 12:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >Precisely.
>> >
>> >If it's real and  - and even I have to admit it seems so - and refers to,
>> >er, Number Two (as it seems to) I can only hark back to my Freudian ref.
>> of
>> >last week.
>> >
>> >Everything you want to know (and, of course, more) is here:
>> >
>> >http://www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-encyclopedia/feces
>>
>> Does this tell me about pennies?  If so, my search engine missed it.
>>
>> Seriously, are there any hypotheses -- now, since the 1700s antedate
>> penny toilets, I assume -- as to the etymology of the expression?
>>
>> Joel
>>
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