twenty-twenty hindsight

[Shapiro, Fred]

The corresponding proverb is included in the just-published Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (Yale University Press):

1949 Van Nuys [CA] News 17 Feb. (a witticism,
printed as a filler, attributed to Richard Armour):
“Most people’s hindsight is 20–20.”

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: twenty-twenty hindsight

OED has a cite calling this "new" in 1962.

1952 Norman C. Meier & Harold W. Saunders, eds. _The Polls and Public
Opinion_ (N.Y.: Holt) 333 [GB Snippet: looks genuine, not verified]:  Gallup
and Crossley and Roper and others were just not in shape to have that
*twenty-twenty
hindsight* beforehand.

1958 Rep. Henry A. Dixon, in _Salt Lake Tribune_ (Oct. 4) 22 [NewspArch]:
Twenty-twenty hindsight regarding national security is easy.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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