Fun with phrases

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 25 23:56:34 UTC 2012 

"It isn't the heat. It's the humidity."

No 19th C. GB or NewspArch hits.

1917 ad for _Vanity Fair_ magazine in _House & Garden_ [GB snippet:
typeface and ref. to Plattsburg army training camp make it look
legit]:   Let other people restate the safe-and-sane truths that
dinner is their best meal; that if you saw that sunset in a painting
you wouldn't believe it; and that it isn't the heat, it's the
humidity.

1920 _Miami Herald_ (June 18) [Am. Hist. Newsp.] 6: ...and we swear
it; we/ Have never had to say, "It's not/ The heat. It's the
humidity."

(Most recent OED "humidity" is 1871.)

JL

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 10:05 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
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "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



--
"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

More information about the Ads-l mailing list