Fun with phrases

Mon Jan 23 15:05:57 UTC 2012

"Who _are_ you? (I mean) _really_?"

Fantasy/thriller cliche'.

1950  Ray Bradbury _The Martian Chronicles_ (Garden City, N.Y.:
Doubleday) 153:    Who are you, _really_? You can't be Tom, but you
are _someone_. Who?

JL

On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 8:01 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
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "rewriting the rules"
>
> E.g.: "Founder of avant-rock band Pere Ubu, singer David Thomas has
> been rewriting the rules of popular music for more than twenty-eight
> years."
>
> It's like throwing the book away and writing your own rules. And
> *they* have to play by them! Feels great, doesn't it?
>
> Far more GB hits in the last ten years than in the preceding hundred.
> Very few in the 19th C. What's more important, pre-1980 exx. tend very
> strongly to refer to the literal rewriting of actual rules - not the
> sort of thing David Thomas has been doing.
>
> Cf. "(But) the rules have changed!" earlier in this series.
>
> JL
>
> On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 1:48 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
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "comes with a hefty price-tag"
>>
>> Often the price-tag is figurative.  OED has a 1951 "price-tag"
>> ('monetary price'), but not in this construction.
>>
>>
>>
>> 1957 (Jan. 1) _Directory of Fellowships in the  Arts and Sciences_
>> (Washington, D.C.: Assoc of Amer. Colleges) 5 [unverified GB snippet]:
>> For the modern graduate student, however, advanced learning comes with
>> a large price tag attached.
>>
>> 1968 _Yuma Daily Sun_ (Nov. 8) 4 [NewspArch]: Marketing a new
>> plaything with a hefty price tag.
>>
>> 1978 C. W. Brister _Take Care_ (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadmann) 45
>> [unverified GB snippet] : Small wonder that heroism comes with a high
>> price tag and that fear for one's own safety holds some would-be
>> helpers back.
>>
>> The ref. on GB "1944" to Canadian politicians "Richard Nerysoo" and
>> "Stan J. Hovdebo"   shows the date to be about 40 years too early.
>>
>> "With a hefty price-tag" gets close to 11,000,000 raw Google hits.
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:06 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
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> "Welcome to the [wonderful] world of...!"
>>>
>>> In discussing yesterday's superfailure, somebody on CNN said, "Welcome
>>> to the world of politics!" Sarcastically, of course, which is about
>>> the only way the phrase is used nowadays outside of the wonderful
>>> world of glib, meretricious promotions.
>>>
>>> GB coughs up some 28,000 [!] exx. of "welcome to the wonderful world of" alone.
>>>
>>>
>>> 1937 _Bankers Magazine_ CXXXV 480 [GB Snippet: looks real]: Leslie G.
>>> McDouall... delivered an address of "Welcome to the World of Business
>>> and Affairs."
>>>
>>> 1957 Jerry D. Lewis _Great Stories about Show Business_ (N.Y.: Coward
>>> McCann) 7: Welcome to the wonderful world of Show Business, where
>>> people possess the secret of perpetual motion.
>>>
>>> 1959 Adrian A. Paradis _Librarians Wanted_  (N.Y.: McKay) 3: Welcome
>>> to the World of Libraries.
>>>
>>> 1960 Charles H. Goren _The Elements of Bridge_ (Garden City, N.Y.:
>>> Doubleday) vii: Welcome to the world of bridge.
>>>
>>> From NewspArch:
>>>
>>> 1962 _Charleston [W.Va.] Daily Mail_  (June 7) 9: COMPLETELY INSTALLED
>>> air conditioning and heating system / Welcome to the world of
>>> controlled comfort! Step inside...away from summer's blistering
>>> heat...away from winter's chilling blasts.
>>>
>>> 1965 _Independent Press-Telegram_  [Long Beach, Calif.] (Apr. 4) W-10:
>>>  Washington State . . . Welcome to the World of Washington.
>>>
>>> 1967 _Valley News_ [Van Nuys, Calif.] (Nov. 16) 10-B: Welcome to the
>>> world of Trans World Airlines.
>>>
>>> 1969 _Winnipeg Free Press: Weekend Magazine_ (July 19) 16:  Welcome to
>>> the world of the perambulating pub.
>>>
>>> 1974 _The Capital_ [Annapolis. Md.] (Apr. 25) 35: Welcome to the world
>>> of modeling.
>>>
>>> I remember hearing it ad nauseam in the mid to late '60s.   GB has
>>> some "earlier" ones, but they either seem not to fit the present
>>> nuance, or else the dates seem dubious.
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 4:07 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
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> 1835 E. J. Trelawny _Adventures of a Younger Son_ (London: Bentley)
>>>> 257: She had wound herself about my heart till she became a part of
>>>> me. Our extreme youth, ardent nature, and solitude, had wrought our
>>>> feeling of affection towards each other to an intensity that perhaps
>>>> was never equalled, assuredly never surpassed.
>>>>
>>>> Hot stuff.
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:33 PM, Ben Zimmer
>>>> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
>>>>> Subject:      Re: Fun with phrases
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 12:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>> [...]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Numerous other exx. of most of these phrases, and some others that are
>>>>>> similar ("You'' laugh! You'll cry! You'll love it!" is quite popoular)
>>>>>> right into the 21st C.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, "I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me," which became a
>>>>> sarcastic catchphrase in the late '80s.
>>>>>
>>>>> --bgz
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Ben Zimmer
>>>>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org