[Ads-l] "that'll be the day"

[Jonathan Lighter]

My grandmother (b. 1888) used to say, "That'll be the day!"

Come to think of it, it's been a long, long time since I heard anyone say
it. Will have to start using it.

BTW, "the day" might simply indicate "the most remarkable day ever." At
least that's how I interpreted it as a boy.

JL

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 6:59 AM, Robin Hamilton <
robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:

> I think there Buddy Holly is playing off rather than reflecting the normal
> sense of the idiom, which would be:
>
>            'That'll be the day!" [when pigs fly].
>
> Sometime / Never
>
> Robin Hamilton
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Wilson Gray
> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2016 8:40 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "that'll be the day"
>
>
> _That'll Be the Day_
>
> by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison
>
> Well, that'll be the day, when you say goodbye
> Yes, that'll be the day, when you make me cry
> You say you're gonna leave, you know it's a lie
> 'Cause that'll be the day, when I die
>
> Et seq.
>
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 2:05 AM, x <
> 0000053c1ce4c7f7-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> watched john wayne's the searchers yesterday in which wayne repeatedly
>> says "that'll be the day". but what "day" is he talking about? and what
>> "day" does the phrase refer to? i wonder if the phrase has a biblical
>> reference. is it possibly the "day" of the apocalypse, the last day on
>> earth? makes sense.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> -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
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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