[Ads-l] _shlong_ and the collective etymological unconscious

[Jonathan Lighter]

Perhaps Hiaasen is thinking of the well-known "pants python" or "crotch
cobra," both seemingly of British or Australian origin.

JL

On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 3:21 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 29, 2016 at 3:03 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
>
> > Possibly influenced by the racehorse Dutch Bluster, who was active from
> > 1894 to 1899, although it's not clear the horse would still have been
> > remembered in 1946, when the story was written.
>
>
> If the horse was remembered, though, it clarifies the use of quotes. Nobody
> writes _Dutch courage_ as "Dutch courage," after all. The quotes would be a
> signal to the reader that the writer was punning: Dutch Bluster X Dutch
> courage.
>
> Of course, that's just a WAG.
>
> Youneverknow.
> -----
> 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
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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