[Ads-l] break one's leg

[Dan Goncharoff]

https://mashable.com/2017/11/26/skyrim-arrow-in-the-knee-meme-history/
DanG


On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 5:34 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> Slightly OT but I just got this from a friend with a possible genisis:
> > Ever play Skyrim? Fun video game. There's a running joke/meme in the
> game, where your character encounters old men who say,
> > "I used to be an adventurer like you. But then I took an arrow to the
> knee."
> > Which apparently is an old saying akin to "shotgun wedding," where some
> young dude got a girl pregnant, and her dad threatened to shoot him in the
> knee with an arrow if he didn't get down on it to propose.
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 10:44 AM Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Joan, the pleasure was mine.
> >
> > (I mean in finding the cite.)
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 8:58 AM Joan Hall <
> > 00000876364530cf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > Thanks for the early citation, Jonathan. DARE shows that the phrase was
> > > still found, chiefly in the South, in the mid-twentieth century:
> > >
> > > break one’s leg v phr
> > > Also break one’s toe chiefly South<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/search?rcode=region.Sth
> > > >
> > > euphem
> > > To become pregnant.
> > >
> > >   *   1908 DN<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/bibliography?letterHeading=D#bibl_3038
> >
> > > 3.294 eAL, wGA,<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/search?f_0=reglabel&q_0=eAL,%20wGA
> >
> > > Break one’s leg. . . Of a woman, to become with child illegitimately.
> > >   *   1965–70 DARE<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/bibliography?letterHeading=D#bibl_11064
> > > >
> > > Qu. AA28, . . Expressions . . to say [a woman] is going to have a baby:
> > > “She[’s] _____.”
> > > Infs FL51, LA6, NJ69, NC88, VA41, Broke her leg; AL50, Broke a leg;
> AL56,
> > > Got a leg broke; CA114, GA70, MS60, WV4, 5, Broke her toe.
> > >
> > >   *   1979 DARE File<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/bibliography?letterHeading=D#bibl_11067
> >
> > > cSC,<
> > >
> https://www-daredictionary-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/search?f_0=reglabel&q_0=cSC
> >
> > > There used to be the expression . . meaning pregnant. Mrs. Brown’s
> daughter
> > > broke her leg.
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
>
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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