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

[Jonathan Lighter]

It was a more colorful America.

JL

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 7:17 AM, paul johnson <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       paul johnson <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "spend a penny" -- the TLS is at it again.
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>
> paul johnson
>
> If my father wanted to really irritate my mother in public, his phrase
> was, "got to take the water off the potatoes"
>
> On 10/8/2011 6:13 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> 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:
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>>> 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:
>>>
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>>>> 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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>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>
> If you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would try to pass.
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