[Ads-l] skinback

[Jonathan Lighter]

 The routine order during the military "short-arm inspection" (conducted at
least since 1917) was,

"Skin it back and milk it down."

Known to millions.

JL

On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 3:41 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Conceivably suggested to the ultra-naive in part by Little Feat's "Skin It
> Back" (1974) (described as "classic"):
>
> Skin it back (skin it back)
> Somethin' real, somethin' to feel
> I can't find a soul who'll take on this mess
> ...
> So well now, I'm wonderin' just how I'm gonna tell it to you
> Skin it back, tell it to you
> Skin it back, tell it to you
> Skin it back, tell it to you
> Skin it back, tell it to you
>
> Or not.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 1:38 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> . "... peeling back your skin and feeling the pain."
>>
>> There's no pain involved in skinning it back.<har!har!>
>>
>> Can it truly be the case that journalists see no immediate connection
>> between the term, "skinback," as in the retraction of a premise and the
>> phrase, "skinning it back," as in the retraction of the foreskin? And "as
>> in peeling back your skin and feeling the pain" is actually meant to be
>> taken literally? There are actually (white?) people who peel back
>> their skin and feel the pain?
>>
>> Clearly, the Cotton Curtain was more impermeable than the Iron Curtain!
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 7:46 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > FWIW, here's a journalistic usage:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> https://www.reuters.com/article/column-dcjohnston-murdoch/column-how-i-misread-news-corps-taxes-david-cay-johnston-idUSN1E76C25320110713
>> > David Cay Johnston (July 13, 2011): "For the first time in my
>> 45-year-old
>> > career I am writing a skinback. That is what journalists call a
>> retraction
>> > of the premise of a piece, as in peeling back your skin and feeling the
>> > pain."
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:30 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > Honestly, Wilson.  It clearly means "walkback" or (early ModE)
>> > > "retraction."
>> > >
>> > > Next thing, you'll be using dated, arcane phrases like "short-arm."
>> > >
>> > > JL
>> > >
>> > > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 5:53 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > > "It is inconceivable to me that minutes after an Oval Office
>> address
>> > > ...
>> > > >
>> > > > I don't think that word means what you think it does.  Alas, far too
>> > > > conceivable.
>> > > >
>> > > > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:31 AM Jonathan Lighter <
>> > wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
>> > > >
>> > > > wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > > > David Axelrod on CNN:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > "It is inconceivable to me that minutes after an Oval Office
>> address
>> > in
>> > > > the
>> > > > > midst of a major crisis, that [sic] you have to engage in a
>> series of
>> > > > > skinbacks to correct what the nation just heard."
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Etymological comment gratuitous?
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > >
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"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