[Ads-l] Heard today in an academic meeting
ADSGarson O'Toole
adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jan 25 22:49:54 UTC 2024
Ingrid Johnsrude wrote:
> “Cream rises to the crop”
>
> A conflation of "cream rises to the top" and "cream of the crop”
> I suppose — has anyone else heard this?
Here is an example of a U.S. football coach using the expression in
2012. The coach realized that he made an error, and he speculated on
the genesis of the mistake.
Article; Baltimore Ravens Practice Transcripts 08/11
Date: Aug 11, 2012 at 05:00 PM
https://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/baltimore-ravens-practice-transcripts-08-11-8066575
RAVENS PRACTICE TRANSCRIPTS
Head Coach John Harbaugh
[Begin excerpt]
How good was it to see Bobby Rainey and Deonte Thompson make some
plays out there? (Jason Butt)
"It was great to see. We were just saying … The guys were joking
because I meant to say, 'The cream rises to the top,' and I said, 'The
cream rises to the crop.' The cream of the crop rises to the top, OK,
something. I told them, 'You know what I meant; go with what I meant,
not what I said.' But, that's the point. It gets tough. It's a long
camp, that's why we have the number of reps we do. We play for the
four preseason games to find out. We give our guys every opportunity.
We will know by the end of the preseason who our best 53 players are."
[End excerpt]
Garson O'Toole
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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