Cut one's name

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Wed Jun 20 12:32:05 UTC 2012


Cut one's teeth plus made one's name?

Stephen
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Dave Wilton [dave at WILTON.NET]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 7:54 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Cut one's name

Saw an odd phrase this morning on OUP's blog, which I guess makes it British
but probably still of interest to the list. "Cut one's name" meaning "built
one's reputation." I've never seen, or at least noticed, this construction
before. A quick Google search turns up nothing but literal references to
carving one's name in trees or other objects. (Although other examples may
be buried in there somewhere.)

"This is the context in which Alan Turing cut his name as a cryptographer
during the Second World War."

http://blog.oup.com/2012/06/alan-turing-cryptographic-legacy/

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

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