[Ads-l] Idiom: throwing (shoving) under the bus [political sacrifice or removal]

[Galen Buttitta]

In the jargon of the online game "Town of Salem", this has been extended (some might say abbreviated) to a verb "to bus".

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 29, 2016, at 21:12, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Back in June 2011 the idiom in the subject line was discussed on this
> mailing list. Now, the Merriam-Webster website has an article with
> some excellent citations. (I do not see a posting date for the
> article; also the sole comment seems to be undated.)
> 
> Website: Merriam-Webster
> Article title: Why Do We 'Throw Someone Under the Bus'?
> Article subtitle: Let's blame the British
> Date: Unknown
> 
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-do-we-throw-someone-under-the-bus
> 
> (Hat-tip to Aanel Victoria for her tweet to me.)
> Garson
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jun 23, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Stephen Goranson very kindly checked the 1985 (or 1984) citation for
>> "shove under the bus" on paper at the Perkins Library (any errors in
>> the following are mine).
>> 
>> Book Title: The Virginia papers on the Presidency [serial].
>> Publisher: Washington : University Press of America, [1979-
>> Paper: "Presidential Nominations: A British Perspective" by Dennis
>> Kavanagh (pp. 51-71)
>> Description: Papers "presented at The Miller Center Forums, 1984 Part
>> IV" but no exact date given.
>> Book copyright: 1985.
>> Volume: 19
>> Quotation Page: 56-57
>> 
>> Excerpt:
>> In 1975 the party was stuck with a leader under whom it couldn't win
>> an election. But there was no way of getting rid of him. All that had
>> been achieved in 1965 was the introduction of a scheme for electing
>> the party leader, but no procedure for the re-election of the leader.
>> So they were stuck with him unless you could shove him under the bus.
>> 
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=1hyHAAAAMAAJ&q=shove#search_anchor
>> 
>> Charles C Doyle wrote:
>>> But what exactly is the image in the expression "throw under
>>> the bus"?  Do we envision the one to be thrown as riding on
>>> the bus (presumably, then, in the very front), or standing beside
>>> the street? On the basis of some of Garson's quotations--and
>>> the wording of the variant "shove under the bus"--the latter
>>> seems more probable.  Though it might be different if, say,
>>> Mrs. Palin were to throw one of her assistants under the bus.
>> 
>> When the phrase was discussed at the Word Detective website in 2008
>> the following imagery was suggested:
>> 
>> .. to me the phrase conjures up the classic urban nightmare of being
>> pushed in front of a bus. As a way to quickly and irreversibly get rid
>> of someone, “throwing” them under a bus in this sense would be the
>> ideal solution and would satisfy the connotations of sudden, cold
>> brutality the phrase usually carries.
>> 
>> http://www.word-detective.com/2008/02/12/under-the-bus-to-throw/
>> 
>> 
>> The Wikipedia entry contains similar imagery based on its 1990
>> citation of a story by Charles Bukowski: Septuagenarian Stew (The Life
>> of a Bum): "character Harry pushed his friend Monk in front of a bus,
>> and then stole Monk's wallet."
>> 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throw_under_the_bus
>> 
>> By default I think the unfortunate target is standing beside the street unaware.
> 
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