Fun with phrases

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> "The predator becomes the prey!"
>
> I just heard it (again) in a promo for a TV special on shark hunting by humans.
>
> 165 GB exx.  beginning in 1961
>
> 70,000 raw ghits.
>
> The earliest GB exx. refer to the animal world.  By 2000, exclusively
> human activity is often referred to.

Not surprisingly, "the hunter becomes the hunted" has a much longer
history, back to 1875 on GB.

--bgz

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

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