Expressions with Number Variation

[Wilson Gray]

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 5:00 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Expressions with Number Variation
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>
> In connection with the discovery that the original formulation of "the whole nine yards" may well have been "the whole six yards," Dave Wilton has pointed out that "there are many examples of phrases with numbers that went through multiple versions with different numerical values before settling on the one that became canonical (e.g., 'cloud nine')."  Can Dave or anyone else give me other examples of this kind of number variation?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Parent-talk:

"If I've told you once, I've told you a dozen / a hundred / a thousand
times: …!"

Parenting gets more difficult over time, I reckon.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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