Maddened by Mad Men

[Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC, 71700]

To reiterate what I said privately to Ben, after having been locked out
of the ADS-List earlier today: At least it's good to hear that _somebody
else_ was annoyed!

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Ben Zimmer
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 10:00
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Maddened by Mad Men

---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Maddened by Mad Men
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On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 12:46 PM, Hunter, Lynne R  wrote:
>
> Recent annoyance from _Mad Men_: "Miss Holloway can hold down the
fort."
> "Hold _down_ the fort" is irritating enough in the present day (at
least
> to my particular ear) without its being ascribed to 1962 speakers.
(The
> phrase conjures up a flighty outpost flimsily moored to some
low-gravity
> planet.)

Wilson Follett was annoyed by "hold down the fort" right around 1962, so
I think
the "Mad Men" writers were on the money here. Follett died in 1963, and
his
complaint about "hold down the fort" made it into _Modern American
Usage_,
published posthumously in 1966.

http://books.google.com/books?id=KgVpvTpFgU8C&pg=PA132

The Recency Illusion strikes again. That's not to say "Mad Men" always
gets it
right...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25FOB-onlanguage-t.html
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2356/

--bgz

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

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org