OED: "monkey's wedding"

[Laurence Horn]

On Dec 2, 2012, at 10:12 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Nor, to my surprise, is "sunshower" in OED.
>
> JL

Oddly, it wasn't in AHD4 either, but it's in the new AHD5 ('A localized rain shower in which rain falls while the sun is shining'), even though it's hardly a new item.  Like Alice, I've been familiar with the word since childhood, and it's not entirely predictable (the way the "mustard stain" type of non-lexicalized compounds is) even if it is essentially transparent.

LH

> On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 10:02 AM, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU>
>> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
>> Subject:      Re: OED: "monkey's wedding"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On 12/2/12 8:34 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>> My grandmother told me about "sunshowers" ca1952.
>>>
>>> I thought it was weird that it could rain while the sun was shining. IMO,
>>> sunshowers are very brief.
>>>
>>> I've read (but never heard) "The devil is beating his wife."  I've never
>>> seen an explanation of it.
>>>
>>
>> "Sunshowers" is the term I was familiar with, growing up in the NY area
>> in the 50s/60s. When I moved to Texas for grad school, I was told about
>> "the devil is beating his wife" as a quintessential Texas expression,
>> although I don't think I ever heard it "in the wild".
>>
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