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

[Joel Berson]

  From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2015 2:02 PM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "eat, breathe, and sleep"
  
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?  

A maven while eating and breathing yoyos.
JSB

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



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