"old wise tale"/"old wives tell"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Feb 16, 2014 at 4:50 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> FWIW, the egg corn database includes hits for "old wise tale", "old wise
> tail", and even "wise tale" without the old.


But not "old wives tell," apparently. "Old wise tail" is interesting for
its unintentional(?) double-entendre. Since I've never seen or heard simply
"wives' tale" where I'd expect "old wives' tale," or ever, I'm not sure
about that one. But...

Youneverknow.

Also, heard:

"They treated me like a bald-headed stepchild."


--
-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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