Maddened by Mad Men

[Tom Zurinskas]

It's needless to say that if something is needless to say, it's needless to say.  Or is it?


Tom Zurinskas, first Ct 20 yrs, then Tn 3, NJ 33, Fl 9.
Learn about the alphabet and sounds of US English at http://justpaste.it/ayk





>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject: Re: Maddened by Mad Men
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Why is it necessary to report minor personal annoyances? And why, if something is "needless to say," would one add to the endless clutter by actually saying that it is to say that it is needless say?
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Sep 20, 2011, at 5:44 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> >> Isn't this just an example of the phrasal verb "to hold down," documented by the OED back to 1891 and by now well established in phrases such as "to hold down a job"?
> >>
> >
> > Whatever the origin of "hold _down_ the fort," the phrase is still an
> > annoyance to some of us.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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