LL-L 'Idiomatica' 2007.02.06 (01) [D/E/V]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 06 February 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Kevin Caldwell <kevin.caldwell1963 at verizon.net>
Subject: LL-L 'Idiomatica' 2007.02.05 (05) [E]

> From: Aleta Turner <aletamosquito at gmail.com>
> Subject: LL-L 'Idiomatica' 2007.02.05 (03) [E]
>
> All this talk about idioms is interesting.  As has
> been mentioned, within a language they can
> be quite regional.  I'm a native English speaker,
> but if Ron hadn't said that a "donkey's bridge"
> was a mnemonic device, I wouldn't have known
> what he meant. Perhaps that's just my own
> idiolect not knowing that phrase, but even so...
>
> Other expressions may quite variable but
> still understandable.  I'd never heard "a few
> fries short of a Happy Meal", but had no
> trouble knowing it was the same as "a
> bricks short of a load, or just about any
> variation on
> "a few ____ short of a ____".
>
> Aleta

A few bricks shy of a load.
A few sandwiches short of a picnic.
Half a bubble off plumb.
A dim bulb.
Lights are on but nobody's home.
His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top.
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Sharp as a bowling ball.
Not playing with a full deck.

For some reason, at least in English, mental deficiency (whether general
stupidity, insanity, or whatever) has a lot of these idiomatic expressions
to describe it. So do drunkenness and death.

Kevin Caldwell

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Idiomatica

Thanks, Kevin.

> For some reason, at least in English, mental deficiency (whether general
stupidity, insanity, or whatever) has a lot of these idiomatic expressions
to describe it. So do drunkenness and death.

I've noticed this too, and it seems to apply to most European languages.  I
wonder if it's because mental deficiency, drunkenness and death are
(semi-)tabooed.  The former two are often used to refer to people behind
their backs, or outside what is hoped to be earshot, and creative rephrasing
may go back to a security device.  Or these expressions were simply designed
to put a humorous spin on negative conditions.  Or both ...

And then there is creative rephrasing of anything sexual, of course, clearly
flling into the same category.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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