Random Note for WOTY: #19

[Jonathan Lighter]

1944 U.S. Congress House Committee on Banking and Currency _Hearings...on
H.R. 3956_ (Washington D.C.: G.P.O., 1944) 508: MR. FORD.  In other words,
the final word in the statute was hog tight, horse high, and mule strong.

JL


On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 12:39 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Random Note for WOTY: #19
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 2:36 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) wrote:
> >
> >> bull strong
> >
> > I think the phrase "horse-high, bull-strong and pig-tight", referring to
> > wire fences, goes back to the 19th century.
>
> DARE has:
>
> 1859 Harper’s New Mth. Mag. 19.712, A Buncombe fence, Sir, is a fence
> that is bull strong, horse high, and pig tight!
>
> Futher cites from Barry Popik:
>
>
> http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/horse_high_bull_strong_and_pig_tight_qualities_of_a_texas_fence/
>
> I'd be more convinced of continuity with current "strong" forms if
> "bull strong" here meant "strong as a bull" rather than "strong enough
> to restrain a bull." But who knows -- maybe the creators of the "Army
> Strong" slogan (more relevant than "LiveStrong," I think) were
> influenced by "bull strong." I also hear an echo of tough-guy truck
> advertising: "(built) Ford tough" (from 1976) and "Ram tough" (from
> 1980):
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=3uEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26
> http://books.google.com/books?id=B9AaHt2-33sC&pg=PA115
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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