body = 'a human being as capable of feeling physical pain'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Even his name means VD.

JL


On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 9:41 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: body = 'a human being as capable of feeling physical
> pain'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Aug 15, 2014, at 3:45 AM, W Brewer wrote:
>
> > (1) <<Gin a body meet a body / Comin thro' the rye>>. =20
>
> As the remainder of the verse indicates--
>
> O gin a body meet a body,
> Comin=E2=80=99 thro=E2=80=99 the rye;
> Gin a body f=E2=80=94k a body,
> Need a body cry?
>
> [Burns, R. [1800] 1964. Comin=C2=92 thro=C2=92 the rye. In: J. Burke and =
> S. Goodsir Smith (eds.), _The merry muses of Caledonia_, p. 144.
> G. P. Putnam=C2=92s Sons, New York.]
>
> --Robbie Burns was definitely thinking of bodies here, and not just =
> metonymically.
>
> LH
>
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