[Ads-l] "eat, breathe, and sleep"

Sun Apr 12 18:02:33 UTC 2015

All of these are obviously germane; but none exemplifies the modern trio of
"eat, breathe, and sleep," and in none is the phrase itself followed by a
direct object.

My point is simply that the writers Ben cites would doubtless understand
the 20th C. idiom, but would just as doubtless find it novel as well as
grammatically unacceptable.

Viz., how can a person "sleep" anything?   And most of the cited exx.
involve people merely doing these things (which amount to "living")
according to certain dictates rather than having somehow internalized them:
"She eats, breathes, and sleeps Beauty!".

Minor distinctions, but enough to suggest that the modern phrase suggests a
more fanciful view of seeing the world.

I was able to check only Newspaper Archive. Perhaps an earlier example may
be found elsewhere.

JL

On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 12:16 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "eat, breathe, and sleep"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just to put this to rest, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is from
> 1865, and my Language Log post (linked by Larry above) gives several
> relevant examples predating that.
>
> Catherine Jemmat, "The Choice," from The Memoirs, 1762, p. 115
> "And let him be no learned fool,
> That nods o'er musty books;
> Who eats and drinks and lives by rule,
> And waves my words and looks."
>
> Edward Thompson, "The Courtesan," from The Court of Cupid, 1770, p. 70
> "Be thou my Muse; in spite of pedant fools
> Who walk, eat, drink, and sleep by college rules."
>
> Maria Edgeworth, Patronage, 1814, p. 270
> "I am sure the profession of the law has not contracted his heart, and
> yet you never saw or can conceive a man more intent upon his
> business.--I believe he eats, drinks, and sleeps upon law; he has the
> reputation, in consequence, of being one of the soundest of our
> lawyers--the best opinion in England."
>
> John Cumming, Moses Right and Bishop Colenso Wrong. New York: J.
> Bradburn, 1863, pp. 152-3
> "The unhappy prelate breathes doubts, and eats doubts, and lives in
> doubts, till doubts seem to be assimilated to, and incorporated with
> his very nature."
>
> etc.
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002651.html
>
> On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 7:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > Two unlikelies do not make a likely.
> >
> > Besides, I know all about that answer because I first heard it from
> Dickie
> > Novogrodsky in seventh grade in 1960.
> >
> > And it isn't unlikely at all. Indeed, the paronomastic requirements of
> the
> > Modern English conundrum (etymology unknown) in combination with the
> > limited universe of Modern English semantic possibilities make it all but
> > inevitable.
> >
> > Perhaps the word you meant was "unexpected."
> >
> > But an unexpected plus a neutral (the appearance of "eat," "breathe," and
> > "sleep" in a quite different context elsewhere) does not make a likely
> > either.
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> > On Apr 11, 2015, at 8:41 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> =
> >> wrote:
> >> > Seems unlikely to me.
> >>
> >> Indeed, but the answer I recall to the Mad Hatter's question is also
> >> unlikely:  because Poe wrote on both.
> >>
> >> > On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 1:52 PM, Michael Everson
> >> <everson at evertype.com>
> >> > wrote:
> >> -----
> >> >> On 11 Apr 2015, at 12:04, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> =3D=
> >>
> >> >> wrote:
> >> >>=20
> >> >>> 'To be entirely dedicated to.'
> >> >>> =3D20
> >> >>> Quite familiar to me for decades. Not in OED.
> >> >>> =3D20
> >> >>> TV promo: "Amy eats, breathes, and sleeps Beauty!"
> >> >>> =3D20
> >> >>> 1952 _Pottstown [Pa.] Mercury_ (June 13) 8: Conner is labor's man. =
> >> He =3D
> >> >> has
> >> >>> espoused the cause of organized labor since his early youth. It is =
> >> his
> >> >>> life, a subject he eats, breathes and sleeps in addition to working
> =
> >> at
> >> >>> constantly.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> Likely inspiration:
> >> >>=20
> >> >> The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he
> SAID =
> >> =3D
> >> >> was, "Why is a raven like a writing-desk?"
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "Come, we shall have some fun now!" thought Alice. "I'm glad they've
> =
> >> =3D
> >> >> begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that," she added aloud.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" said
> =
> >> the =3D
> >> >> March Hare.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "Exactly so," said Alice.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on.
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "I do," Alice hastily replied; "at least--at least I mean what I =3D
> >> >> say--that's the same thing, you know."
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "Not the same thing a bit!" said the Hatter. "You might just as well
> =
> >> say =3D
> >> >> that 'I see what I eat' is the same thing as 'I eat what I see'!"
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "You might just as well say," added the March Hare, "that 'I like =
> >> what I =3D
> >> >> get' is the same thing as 'I get what I like'!"
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "You might just as well say," added the Dormouse, who seemed to be
> =3D
> >> >> talking in his sleep, "that 'I breathe when I sleep' is the same =
> >> thing =3D
> >> >> as 'I sleep when I breathe'!"
> >> >>=20
> >> >> "It IS the same thing with you," said the Hatter, and here the =3D
> >> >> conversation dropped, and the party sat silent for a minute, while =
> >> Alice =3D
> >> >> thought over all she could remember about ravens and writing-desks,
> =3D=
> >>
> >> >> which wasn't much.
>
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