[Ads-l] "on the nose"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks Jon and Ben for pointing to this interesting use of the phrase
"on the nose".

I see evidence that this sense can be traced back to the late 1960s
and 1970s in the domain of scripts and reviews. I will try to verify
the citations when I have time - assuming someone does not find
earlier occurrences.
Garson


On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 11:35 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: "on the nose"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 8:47 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>> More on "Unbroken":
>>
>>  "Edifying, beautifully-made, but a bit monotonous and on the nose."
>>
>> http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/movie_reviews/2014/12/angelina_jolie_s_aim_is_true_in_unbroken
>>
>> Unsubtle? Obvious? Not in the D's (viz., OED, UrbanD).
>
> This sense of "on the nose" appears fairly frequently in reviews and
> recaps online. This UD entry covers it:
>
> ---
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20the%20nose&defid=5833388
> on the nose
> Unsubtle or overly and clumsily direct. Used when characters in a
> narrative leave no room for subtext with their eye-rollingly obvious
> dialogue. Not a general term for bad writing.
> "Excuse me, but I don't quite think we should have Helga say 'I am
> sad. I hate you and you smell.' It's a bit on the nose."
> ---
>
> As does Wiktionary:
>
> ---
> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/on_the_nose
> 3. (idiomatic) Unimaginative; over-literal; lacking nuance. "Wearing
> that floral dress to a garden party was a little on the nose, wouldn't
> you say?"
> ---
>
> ...with a couple of citations from online reviews:
>
> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:on_the_nose
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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