"hog tight [etc.]" [Was: Random Note for WOTY: #19]

[Joel S. Berson]

What about subterranean invaders, such as (?) prairie
dogs?  Moles?  Mice?  Meerkats?

Joel

At 12/27/2013 06:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > 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/
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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