fun with phrases

Baker, John JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM
Wed Sep 28 18:55:53 UTC 2011 

        The 1962 quote is out of a different tradition:  the superstition that cats somehow can suck the breath from babies, killing them (see, e.g., http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/catsuck.asp) - I was actually warned about this when my daughter was a newborn.  However, that superstition does not hold that a cat can suck all the air out of the room, so the 1962 quote apparently was influenced by the metaphorical phrase.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2011 2:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: fun with phrases

"Suck all the air out of the room."

Various nuances, a recent cable news fave.

1948 _American Mangazine_ CXLVI 124 [GB: not verified, looks real]: The
indistinct figure disappeared. Its going seemed to suck all the air out of
the room.

Hiatus.

1962 in Newbell Niles Puckett et al. _Popular Beliefs and Superstitions_ I
(Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981) 159 [GB]: If a cat sleeps in a baby's room, it
will suck all the air out of the room and kill the baby.

Hiatus.

1985 Andrew Ward _The Blood Seed_ (N.Y.: Viking) 445 [GB snippet]: It may
have only been the servants who crowded in with him in Perks's laboratory,
but Rai Singh seemed to *suck all the air out of the room* as he glided
about, and I would still have to say that he was the most beautiful human
being....

Hiatus, except for a 1989 ref. to a belief that a broken TV picture tube
will do it.

Popularity, as a fig. expression, begins in 1996.

JL

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 1927 _Charleston [W. Va.] Daily Mail_ (Dec. 20) 15 [Newspaper Archive]:
> Just
> the gift for that SPECIAL someone on your gift list.
>
> 1927 _The Bee_ [Danville, Va.] (Dec. 23)  7 [NewspaperArchive]: She will
> help you when you come in tomorrow to find the gift that is "different" or
> that very special something for that very special someone you have in mind.
>
> Nine-year hiatus.
>
> 1936 _Sheboygan Press_ (Dec. 19) 5 [NewspaperArchive]: For That "Special
> Someone" There's No Gift Like Fine LUXITE LINGERIE.
>
> Increasingly common before a post-WWII torrent. Every ex. I've looked at is
> an ad.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > "That special someone."
> >
> > Nothing before a song title in 1945, "You're that Special Someone."
>  Hardly
> > anything till the '50s, a moderate frequency of use in the '60s, then an
> > explosion begins in  the '70s.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 11:17 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > A clear 1977, then really nothing till the mid-eighties. Then plenty.
> > >
> > > "It isn't who I am" shows up in '73, though not quite in the current
> > sense.
> > > (It seems to mean, "That's not the sort of person I am," which is
> pretty
> > > close to current usage, though I think currently it tends also to mean,
> > "It
> > > isn't the style or thing I prefer."
> > >
> > > There's also a '42 snippet, which, if correctly dated, easily admits a
> > > different interpretation, namely,  "It isn't who *I* am that counts;
> it's
> > > who *you* are."
> > >
> > > "That's who I am" presents too daunting a search.
> > >
> > > "That's not who I am" also shows a good one in 1973.
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > > On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Victor Steinbok <
> aardvark66 at gmail.com
> > > >wrote:
> > >
> > > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > > -----------------------
> > > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > > Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> > > > Subject:      Re: fun with phrases
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > What about the flip-side: "It's not who I am"?
> > > >
> > > >     VS-)
> > > >
> > > > On 9/27/2011 9:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > > > > "It's part of who I am."
> > > > >
> > > > > Nothin' nowhere before a likely 1975 in GB, with some in the '80s.
> > > > >
> > > > > Many in the '90s, more than 500 since 2000.
> > > > >
> > > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >
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>
>
>
> --
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>
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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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