[Ads-l] Miscellany

Mark Mandel mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM
Sat Dec 29 02:24:02 UTC 2018


Ah, indeed I was only looking at "through the roof". I didn't realize you
were including the verb as part of the idiom under consideration.

Mark Mandel


On Fri, Dec 28, 2018 at 2:21 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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!
>
>

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