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

[Jonathan Lighter]

Having mentioned Freud in the "shit" thread, I will make the suggestion that
possibly the allusion is not - or not entirely - inspired by dropping a
copper penny in a slot.

JL

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 2:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> 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 9/23/2011 01:17 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> >...
> >I checked the OED last night: as I recall, its earliest cite was 1965;
>
> 1945    H. Lewis Strange Story iv. 27   'Us girls,' she said, 'are
> going to spend a penny!'
>
> >...
> >If I recall, the previous format of the OED was up-front about what
> section
> >of the alphabet had most recently been revised.  The current format lists
> an
> >array of words beginning with A, and on and on.  Surely the project to
> >revise systematically hasn't been abandoned?  Has it reached "penny" yet?
>
> Yes; "penny" is Sept. 2005.  The (on-line) OED gives the date of each
> entry at the top right.  But I too can't find information about where
> in the alphabet the systematic revision is.  That used to be
> announced in the quarterly bulletins.
>
> Joel
>
> >You all will recall that at the beginning of the year, TLS allowed its
> >correspondents to spend two months pointlessly kicking about the history
> of
> >the word "cool" in slang.  This may be the start of another such spell.
>
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