[Ads-l] Miscellany

[Wilson Gray]

So, you see no distinction between "_go_ through the roof" and "_be_ though
the roof"? A father saying, "When she said yes, I went through the roof"
and a boyfriend saying, "When she said yes, I was through the roof" have
the same meaning?

"I see," said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.

On Thu, Dec 27, 2018 at 5:19 PM Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Well, sort of. That use is literal, but I've never taken the idiom to imply
> flames, but just "very high" in some metaphorical sense or other:
>
> - numerical: prices, interest rates, medical readings (blood pressure...),
> (dis?)approval ratings...
> - emotion: Wilson's enthusiasm example; very commonly anger in a different,
> implicit construction ("When she heard about their escapades, the principal
> went through the roof")
>
>
> Ah. Cambridge agrees:
> https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/go-through-the-roof
> :
>
> - to rise to a very high level:
> Prices have gone through the roof.
>
> ​- (*also hit the roof , informal*) to get very angry:
> When I was expelled from school, my parents went through the roof.
>
> Mark
>
>
> On Dec 27, 2018 3:43 PM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Heard on local news
> A fireman says to a reporter,
> "By the time we got here, the flames were _through the roof_."
> Is this the source of such expressions as:
>
> When she said yes, I was through the roof!
> After she had explained the concept, my enthusiasm was through the roof!
> During the concert, the fumes of Teen Spirit were through the roof!
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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