"out of" = 'in'

Herb Stahlke hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM
Fri Jan 24 03:05:26 UTC 2014


"out of" is used horses to indicate the mare who gave birth to the horse
being identified (OED "out of" 3.b).  Could this sporting usage be the
source of of its contemporary use in sports writing about football players,
boxers, ect.?


On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 8:22 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "out of" = 'in'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the introduction of pugilists who are about to compete in "Ultimate
> Fighting" bouts (we all watch those, don't we?) a fuller locution is
> customarily employed, which has struck me as especially odd.  For example,
> "Fighting out of Athens, Georgia: Forrest Griffin."
>
> --Charlie
> ________________________________________
>
>
> At 1/22/2014 05:45 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >No. Huge difference.
> >
> >The confident pace and inflection of the spoken utterance conveyed the
> >unmistakable idea that "out of Norman" referred to the location of the
> >University and not the origin of the story.
> >
> >Otherwise it would have been customary and journalistically idiomatic to
> >have said, "[And now, breaking news] out of Norman, Oklahoma: [a report
> of]
> >shots fired at the University of Oklahoma [there in Norman. That breaking
> >news out of Norman, Oklahoma...]."
> >
> >Few newspeople seem to say "from" anywhere, if they can say "out of."
> >  That's been true for many years.
> >
> >
> >JL
> >
> >
>
> > >
> > > > CNN reports "shots fired at the University of Oklahoma out of Norman,
> > > > Oklahoma
> > > >
> > >
> > > Hmmm...If you read, "CNN reports, out of Norman, Oklahoma, shots fired
> at
> > > the University of Oklahoma," would you have said anything? Is there a
> > > difference?
> > >
> > > DanG
>
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