[Ads-l] Hager-ma growley

[Jonathan Lighter]

Interesting, though, that "mill" and "mule" bear a phonetic resemblance.

Aah, but so what?

(And did everybody catch "sinners" for "sinews"?)

JL

On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 2:54 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hager-ma growley
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 9:28 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > To "euchre" is to victimize by trickery.
> >
> > "That's what's the matter with the mule."
> >
>
> Doesn't "euchre" still mean that?
>
> I'm reminded of
>
> "What's the matter with the mill? The mill won't grind."
>
> Approx., My gender-life has dwindled to nothing because my woman - the
> "mill" - is unexpectedly and unusually rejecting my advances.
>
> There's a blues on this topic by Muddy Waters, unfortunately mistitled by
> the producer - presumably not only white but also Northern and uninvolved
> beyond the money - as
>
> "What's the Matter With the _Meal_?"
>
> even though that means that the explanatory complaint,
>
> "The *meal* won't grind"
>
> explains nothing, even if "grind"is understood as being in the middle
> voice.
>
> --
> - 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
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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