[Ads-l] Heard on the radio

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 1, 2015, at 5:25 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I guess what struck me as odd about the phrase is that it is not
> necessarily an idiom. A boxer may kill his opponent. It felt like the
> announcer had to add SOMETHING to qualify "going in for the kill", and
> 'proverbial' was the word chosen, but not because it was correct.
> 
> DanG

Well, but perhaps "X kicked the proverbial bucket" is used in preference to "kicked the bucket", when it is, out of apprehension that it might otherwise be interpreted as alluding to X making contact via foot with pail as opposed to dying.

LH

> 
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 5:17 PM, 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: Heard on the radio
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>>> On Apr 1, 2015, at 5:06 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>> =20
>>> during an ad for boxing on CBS, there was a commentary from a previous
>>> fight:
>>> "...going in for the 'proverbial' kill"
>>> =20
>>> Doesn't 'proverbial' require an actual proverb?
>> 
>> as in "kicked the proverbial bucket":=20
>> I think "proverbial" in such case basically =3D 'idiomatic' and such =
>> adverbs tend to lower into the idiom as adjectives
>> 
>> LH
>>> =20
>>> I guess it sounds better than 'idiomatic' kill"...
>>> =20
>>> DanG
>>> =20
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