[Ads-l] Youneverknow.

[Wilson Gray]

> I poked around and some dictionaries give the literal meaning of meal
> ticket along with the nonliteral meanings (dictionary.com and Macmillan),
> and some don't (Oxford and Merriam-Webster).

That may be so. But _my_ claim is only that _I_ didn't know that
"meal-ticket" occurred outside of such expressions as, e.g. "He used her as
his meal-ticket." Since the metaphorical meaning of _meal-ticket_ in such
expressions is clear, I've never been motivated to research whether there
was a literal meaning available.

On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 5:56 AM David Daniel <dad at coarsecourses.com> wrote:

> Odd. I poked around and some dictionaries give the literal meaning of meal
> ticket along with the nonliteral meanings (dictionary.com and Macmillan),
> and some don't (Oxford and Merriam-Webster). If anyone is interested: Here
> in Brazil, virtually every employer gives virtually every employee a meal
> ticket to use to pay for lunch. These days, the meal tickets are mostly
> pre-paid debit cards provided by various companies, the worldwide
> food-service company Sodexo being one. The tickets are known by various
> names, the most common being "vale alimentação" - food voucher - and
> "ticket
> refeição" - literally, meal ticket. Restaurants in commercial areas are all
> packed at lunchtime with folks using their meal tickets, which is good for
> everybody.
> DAD
>
> -----Mensagem original-----
> De: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] Em nome de
> Wilson Gray
> Enviada em: domingo, 1 de dezembro de 2019 05:05
> Para: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Assunto: Youneverknow.
>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Youneverknow.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> Got a letter from a local charity soliciting donations to allow for the
> provision of _meal-tickets_ to the poor. Didn't know that "meal-ticket" had
> a literal meaning.
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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