[Ads-l] "Brass" -- well chosen, NY Daily News

Joel Berson berson at ATT.NET
Fri Oct 21 16:05:06 UTC 2016


In Chapter 4, "Trump the fake philanthropist," of the New York Daily News editorial, its writer says:


"While living gaudily, Trump puffed out his chest as a man of great generosity. Not only was he a rich guy, and a tell-it-like-it-is-guy, and the most can-do guy around, he broadcast that deep down he had a heart of gold — when he was selling brass."


Well-put "brass," considering its several senses (emphasis added):


1.a. Historically: The general name for all alloys of copper with tin or zinc (and occasionally other _base_ metals).

[Copper coins, of course, were the "base" alternative to silver and gold.]
 

1.c. Taken as a type of hardness, imperishableness, _insensibility_, etc.

4.a fig. Taken as a type of _insensibility to shame_: hence, Effrontery, impudence, unblushingness.

News to America: Bury Trump in a Landslide

  
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News to America: Bury Trump in a Landslide
 Herewith, we fervently pray, is the political obituary of Donald Trump and all that he stands for.  |   |

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Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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