[Ads-l] intestinal/testicular fortitude

[Ben Zimmer]

I have a post on the Lexicon Valley blog today about "testicular
fortitude" (now in the news because Bill Simmons used it just before
getting fired by ESPN):

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/05/11/bill_simmons_testicular_fortitude_the_etymology_of_a_phrase_and_the_sensibilities.html

I start with "intestinal fortitude" as a euphemism for "guts"
(credited to Ohio State football coach John Wilce, in print from
1921), which was malapropized as "testicle fortitude" by Dizzy Dean,
before emerging as "testicular fortitude" (in print from 1971).

We discussed both kinds of fortitude about ten years ago on the list.

--bgz

-- 
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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