[Ads-l] New to me: "use the whole buffalo"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Makes me think of Fort Apache in the Bronx.

DanG
On Feb 13, 2015 8:31 PM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      New to me: "use the whole buffalo"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Heard on an L&O - CI season 3 (2003) re-run:
>
> D'Onofrio's character, Det. Goren, referencing the victim, says:
>
> "He had no ID, no cell phone, no watch. Punks _used the whole buffalo_."
>
> This variant of the cliches of the "whole hog" / "whole [numeral] yards"
> class seems to be relatively recent.
>
> The above is the oldest derived use that I can find with a date.
>
> Below is the earliest literal use that I found.
>
> Hawaii Pono Journal - Volume 1 - Page 131
> https://books.google.com/books?id=3DjXTxAAAAMAAJ
> 1970 - =E2=80=8ESnippet view - =E2=80=8EMore editions
> Moreover, they _used the whole buffalo_, not only the hide.
>
>  I also found,
>
> "'They used the whole buffalo,' so to speak,"
>
> which suggests derivation. But, without any context or a date more specific
> than "21st century,"
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> --
> -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
>
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