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BS: Fossilised phrases |
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Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: Genie Date: 29 Aug 11 - 02:32 AM How about referring to someone/something as a "carbon copy" of someone/something else? |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: GUEST,Paul Burke Date: 28 Aug 11 - 08:02 PM Drive a coach and four through the law... (yawn) The legal profession is full of such anachronisms. A face like the back of a bus... now you won't understand that until you go to a well- stocked transport museum, and actually see the back of a really old bus. Avoid cliches like the plague. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: Richard Bridge Date: 28 Aug 11 - 07:05 PM "Willy nilly" - the slightly corrupt transliteration of the Latin "volens nolens". "Blighty touch" "Willy" - again from the Latin "Membrum virile" "Mad as a hatter" - how long since top hat makers used mercury? |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: GUEST,Allen In Oz Date: 28 Aug 11 - 06:22 PM " Mad as a two bob watch " AD |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: GUEST,Paul Burke Date: 28 Aug 11 - 05:11 PM How long is it since you had to spend a penny? |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: EBarnacle Date: 28 Aug 11 - 04:48 PM Rule if thumb defines the legal width a man could use to beat his wife or child up into the 19th century. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: WalkaboutsVerse Date: 28 Aug 11 - 04:36 PM Do millers still feel the ground-grain between finger and thumb, before making adjustments, as in "rule of thumb"? |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: Gurney Date: 28 Aug 11 - 04:23 PM 'As the crow flies..' Do they really fly like a pigeon? |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: WalkaboutsVerse Date: 28 Aug 11 - 12:47 PM ..?..from first carriage to first cab off the rank, MtheGM. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: MGM·Lion Date: 28 Aug 11 - 10:50 AM Good responses all, for which thanks ~~ except I can't see where Hobson's Choice, interesting a phrase as it is historically ~~ an antomomasiac eponym-metaphor based on the early C17 Cambridge University carrier's practice in his horse-hiring sideline of only offering any hirer the horse in the nearest stall to the entrance ~~ fits into the subject of the thread, WAV. And 'wireless' perhaps rather a somewhat obsolete synonym of 'radio' than a fossilised survival of a superseded technology: even when digital, radios are still wire-less in that sense, surely? ~M~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Aug 11 - 09:33 AM I've still got a chain. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: johncharles Date: 28 Aug 11 - 08:23 AM I listen to my "wireless" every morning. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: JennieG Date: 28 Aug 11 - 08:01 AM Someone who goes on and on about a subject is said to be "like a cracked record"....."like a cracked CD" isn't the same! Cheers JennieG |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: Dead Horse Date: 28 Aug 11 - 07:49 AM I still 'Pull the chain' after a visit to the loo. |
Subject: RE: BS: Fossilised phrases From: WalkaboutsVerse Date: 28 Aug 11 - 06:56 AM "Hobson's Choice" - http://walkaboutsverse.webs.com/#54 |
Subject: BS: Fossilised phrases From: MGM·Lion Date: 28 Aug 11 - 05:46 AM Phrases and locutions often become fossilised. Football reporters have talked of 'hitting the woodwork' when a shot rebounds off the goalpost or crossbar for over 100 years; and tv sports commentators still employ the cliché, even though the goals have not been made of wood but of tubular metal for — how long? 50 years? Many people still refer to entering the number when making a phone call as 'dialling', even though digital keyboards have replaced dials on phones for at least the past 30 years. Surely numbers are 'punched' these days, rather than 'dialled'? {Fess up: which do you say? FYI, my recent BT Phone Book still refers to "your dialling needs"!, although 'call' has replaced 'dial' in most instructions!} Any other such pertinacious obsolete linguistic survivals that you have observed? ~Michael~ |