[Ads-l] No soap
Michael Quinion
michael.quinion at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Sun Sep 4 08:02:05 UTC 2016
Among the pieces posted this weekend to my website is one on the
Americanism /no soap/: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nos1.htmI . I
suggest an origin among US Navy recruits during the First World War. (A
couple of relevant citations antedating the OED are included in the
piece but I have others on file.) Comments on the suggested origin will
be most welcome.
I've also written about the US sense of /nimrod/ as an inept person:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-nim1.htm . Comments likewise most
welcome.
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Michael Quinion, World Wide Words
http://www.worldwidewords.org
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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