Perhaps a crash blossom...

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Mar 18 23:58:21 UTC 2013


On Mar 18, 2013, at 6:21 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> for senior citizens still able to recall the term, "French leave."
>
> "Terror Haven in Mali Feared After French Leave"
>

I noticed that too.  French leave is after all what the French refer to as "filer à l'anglais".  Kind of like "French pox" vs. "the X disease", where X is some nationality other than one's own.   I had another crash blossom experience today, trying to sort out this headline from HuffPost:

Cyprus Bailout Tax Worries Fuel Sharp Drop In Global Stocks

(and looking for the verb).

LH

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list