[Ads-l] "on the nose"

Mon Apr 6 09:21:12 UTC 2015

Database matches suggest that the phrase "too on the nose" was
employed in a 1947 short story in the domain of music. The denotation
of "on the nose" in this citation seems to be: precisely on time. This
sense is listed in the OED. But the connotation of "too on the nose"
seems to be: insufficiently complex, subtle, or variable. Perhaps this
is a precursor to the modern sense under investigation.

Date: May 1947
Periodical: The Harpers Monthly
Short story title: Sparrow's Last Jump
Story author: Elliott Grennard
Start Page 419, Quote Page 420, End Page 426
(Data may be inaccurate; not verified on paper; information from
Google Books snippet view and Unz metadata; short story also appears
to be in the O. Henry Award 1948 compilation)

[Begin extracted text]
The only thing screwy about Hughie was that he had gone on a be-bop
kick and had chucked up a sweet job with Basie, plus a bookful of
recording dates every month. That's the trouble with be-bop. Once you
start hearing those screwy chords in your ear and get those offbeats
in your system, you can't play any other way. The old way is too
straight, too on-the-nose.
[End extracted text]

The 1969 citation below is in the film domain, and the phrase "too on
the nose" seems to match the modern sense of clumsily direct and
lacking subtlety. However, nowadays the phrase is sometimes shortened
to "on the nose". The 2005 citation below has both versions.

Date: March 1, 1969
Periodical: The Saturday Review
Title: SR Goes to the Movies
Sub-title: "G" as in Good Entertainment
Author: Arthur Knight
Start Page 40, Quote Page 40, Column 3
Comment: Review of the 1969 movie "My Side of the Mountain"
Database: Unz

[Begin excerpt]
At times, especially when explaining Thoreau's philosophy, the script
seems a bit too on the nose; and it could certainly use more humor. I
would, nevertheless, like to nominate it for a new "G" category - good
entertainment.
[End excerpt]

In 1971 "The New York Times" published a book review in which the
characters of a novel were described as "too 'on the nose'". The
reviewer reprinted dialog that was clumsily overt and unrealistic.

Date: February 14, 1971
Newspaper: New York Times
Newspaper location: New York, New York
Section: New York Times Book Review
Article title: The Merry Month of May
Article author: Raymond A. Sokolov
Comment: Book Review of The Merry Month of May by James Jones, Delacorte Press
Start Page BR7, Quote Page BR16
Database: ProQuest

[Begin excerpt]
Mary McCarthy, for example, appears briefly under a transparent
pseudonym. But the major characters, whether they resemble real
expatriates or not, are a bit too "on the nose," too instantly
filmable. The best of them, the Gallaghers' revolutionary son Hill,
turns on his liberal (actually ex-radical) parents and says: "Boozers!
Lush-heads! Getting fat in the belly and fat in the mind! With your
old Louis Treize and your ritzy apartment! You're proud of me? After
what your generation did to the world?" The exclamation points fly and
Hill's credibility flies apart with them.
[End excerpt]

In October 1971 a quotation with the phrase was printed in "The New
York Times" and the words were ascribed to the writer Jules Feiffer.

Date October 3, 1971
Newspaper: New York Times
Newspaper location: New York, New York
Section: Movie Mailbag: Feiffer's Answer
Decsription: Letter from John C. Rossetter, Elmwood Park, Illinois.
The letter writer is describing an interview with director Jules
Feiffer published in Playboy magazine. The topic was Feiffer's
screenplay for the 1971 movie "Carnal Knowledge"
Quote Page: D11.

[Begin excerpt]
When asked the moral of his movie, he replied, "There's a speech in an
early draft of the script that I cut out because it seemed too on the
nose and because I'd rather have audiences figure it out for
themselves."
[End excerpt]

An influential 2005 book about writing screenplays has an entry for
"on the nose" in its glossary of terms.

Title: Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
Author: Blake Snyder
Entry: On the nose
Quote Page 189
Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions, Studio City, California
Database: Google Books Preview

[Begin excerpt]
ON THE NOSE a.k.a. A Little Too on the Nose - This is one of my
favorite development executive phrases, uttered when a suggestion is
obvious, unfunny, or something "we've seen before." Instead of saying
"That's obvious, unfunny, and something we've seen before," they say,
"It feels a little on the nose." You, who have been up all night
trying not to be "on the nose," now think of this as a target
suggestion.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 3:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "on the nose"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I checked UrbanD but came up with nothing.
>
> One of the stupidest and most opaque innovations I've ever seen, since it
> seems to be a willful perversion of one established meaning: 'exact.'
>
> Exactitude is now a transgression, just as "subversion" is now a principle
> artistic virtue.
>
> I'm not surprised. But perhaps not for the reason people who use this
> abomination might think.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 12:24 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "on the nose"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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/
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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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