"call it quits" as phrasal eggcorn?

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/27/2014 02:51 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Really interesting, this "dialect split".  Amazing that we can all
>claim to be the same language when we can't agree on what calling it
>quits entails!  (As indicated, I'm with Dan on this,

I am too, having the multiple possible meanings.  Except I can
generalize "I'm calling it quits" to mean "I'm finished with it" even
when it's not even and not about a deteriorated
relationship.  However, I don't have a similar understanding of
"We're quits" -- that requires some consent from the other person.

In my previous message I was only discussing the "we're even" sense.

Joel

>while Herb and Wilson are in the other camp and Neal is, or was,
>sitting it out.  Who knew?)
>
>LH
>
>On Mar 27, 2014, at 12:33 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
> > I have it in several contexts. In a game or contest, it means walking away
> > with no one declared a winner. The same would be true of an argument -- no
> > one wins, both sides end the discussion. The only way it could constitute
> > the end of a relationship is if the relationship had deteriorated to
> > nothing more than a never-ending argument.
> >
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 11:08 AM, Herb Stahlke
> <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: "call it quits" as phrasal eggcorn?
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> No.  For me it means whatever relationship we had is over.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 12:00 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: "call it quits" as phrasal eggcorn?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Do you guys have "we're quits" meaning "we're even"?
> >>>
> >>> LH
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mar 26, 2014, at 11:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> This message is the first intimation I ever had that "call it quits"
> >>>>> meant anything other than "quit".
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> It's news to me, too.
> >>>>
> >>>> Youneverknow.
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> -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
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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