Where Did Shoo Shoo Come From Peer Reviewed Articles
ON Linguistic communication
ON Linguistic communication; SHOO-IN
See the article in its original context from
October 7, 1984
,
Section 6 , Page
18Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home commitment and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an commodity from The Times's print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these manufactures as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other bug; nosotros are standing to work to improve these archived versions.
Citing the lowering of the ''misery index'' - that improver of the unemployment rate to the inflation rate - Leonard Silk, economic science columnist of The New York Times, wrote: ''Mr. Reagan could have some reason to regard himself equally a shoe-in.''
Judy Westerman of New York assumes that shoe-in is a typographical error for shoo-in , and wonders if writers will not turn to other upwards-to-date phrases of finality like carved in stone or made in the shade . Only when queried, Mr. Silk does not take refuge in the old typo excuse (which has grown difficult since discussion-processing terminals have made us our ain typesetters).
''I used shoo-in to mean 'a walkaway, an easy win,' '' says my colleague, who is known to lexicographers as the coiner of double digit . ''I don't know why I spelled it shoe-in . I just bought some shoes.'' It could be that this misspelling, a frequent i, is influenced past shoehorn , a verb meaning ''to insert into a difficult space'' or ''to fit in with difficulty.''
Slang metaphors modify their meanings as they are applied in unlike fields. Mr. Silk's political meaning, ''easy win,'' is accurate; in racing, however, where the term originated, the term retains a more sinister meaning. To shoo is a centuries-onetime colloquialism for ''to urge a person or animal to move in a desired direction.'' Dorsum in the bad old days, corrupt jockeys would grade a ''ring'' and bet on a single equus caballus, property back their own mounts while they ''shooed in'' the winner. In a horseracing shoo-in , the winner is the merely horse trying to win; that decadent connotation does not apply in politics.
In a related evolution from the world of in-and-out, this letter from Gauge Theodore Trautwein of the Superior Court of New Bailiwick of jersey: ''The other day my police force clerk told me that she had actually lucked out on the purchase of her new motorcar. I asked her if she was happy with the bargain. She was indeed!''
The appellate jurist poses the slanguistic issue: ''When things go bad, i is 'out of luck' and vice versa. Hence, I would take employed the expression lucked in under her circumstance.'' He requests my ruling.
The judge is going past the volume: in the Dictionary of American Slang, lucked out is divers as ''to have met with sick fortune.'' Merely that was back in the 1940'southward, and lots of things accept been turned on their heads since then. In 1954, American Speech magazine was citing campus usages of to luck out , meaning ''to achieve success by good luck,'' with the example of not beingness assigned Saturday classes. Today, ba-a-ad ways ''good,'' reports of economical growth can prompt stock-marketplace downturns, and to luck out is to luck in .
I'grand speculating because the lack of inquiry on this indicate has been unfortunate, simply I retrieve this has to do with the way out is used to form new verbs. In standard English, we have such compounds as interruption out, sit out and fall out , then the device is non new; only in slang, we have witnessed an Out Explosion, as coinages accept ranged from driblet out, cop out and sack out to the more contempo veg out, pig out and spazz out .
Out is in and in is out. Along the style, luck ran out - that is, to luck in , or fall into luck, became to luck out . The other form still exists, but the in is near always into : one may luck into something, just the usage is not nearly as mutual as to luck out .
That's the breaks, judge. Appeal denied. Listen to your clerk, get with it, and yous will take it made in the shade.
Hallow
Rings Hollow
Here is this month's red- flag pronunciation alarm: ''I am waiting for Oct. 31 to scroll around,'' writes Eleanor Blau of New York, ''wondering whether that vacation volition be mispronounced again this year. Is it sloppiness or ignorance which (sic) accounts for the mispronunciation of Halloween as Holloween ?''
Neither; it's a newer way to pronounce it. Halloween , or Hallowe'en , is All Hallows Evening, with hallow significant ''sacred,'' or equally a noun, a synonym for ''saint.'' The offset syllable is pronounced hol by some, but hal is withal preferred in the Usa. Although nosotros pronounce swallow as if the get-go syllable had an o , we prefer non to do that with hallow , as everyone familiar with ''hallow'd be Thy name'' will attest.
In Merriam-Webster's Ninth Collegiate, this nice distinction is made: Halloween is pronounced hal-uh- ween, and a second pronunciation is listed with the a in the first syllable having ii dots over it. That means the a is pronounced like the o in ''cottage.''
I suspect that the pronunciation in this country is shifting, and the hallow is ringing hollow . When the kids come trick-or-treating at the end of the month, I'll ask them which vacation information technology is. Those that say Halloween will get an extra scattering of candy corn, because I like to encourage traditionalism.
Respectfully Disagree
When you disagree with your superior, or your friend, or someone you respect, how do y'all put him in his place? Answer: by putting him in a figurative identify or state.
The Rev. Paul A. Wickens, a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark, is in a feud with his Archbishop, at least in part because of the prelate's support for a nuclear freeze. After Father Wickens suggested that churchgoers withhold their Sunday contributions, the Archbishop decided to suspend him and to evict him from the rectory.
The rambunctious priest announced coolly: ''I believe my Archbishop is in schism.''
Where is schism , anyway? That discussion - originally pronounced ''sizzem'' but now more than often pronounced ''skizem'' - is a noun meaning ''split up.'' In theological circles, nonetheless, Splitsville is a almost specific land of being. I consulted Father William Hill of the Catholic University'southward School of Theology for a definition.
'' In schism refers to a partition in approved terms,'' he replied. ''That division may be disciplinary as opposed to doctrinal. Doctrinal issues would involve ideas like the belief in the divinity of Jesus, while disciplinary matters take to practice with the exercise of say-so - for case, one bishop intruding upon another bishop's area. Information technology is possible to be in schism in disciplinary problems without being divided in doctrinal areas.''
I ran beyond a like state a generation ago, researching the origin of Franklin Delano Roosevelt'south use of ''new deal.'' Gauge Samuel I. Rosenman told me that he had drafted the peroration to Mr. Roosevelt's acceptance speech to the 1932 Democratic National Convention: ''I pledge yous, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.''
Raymond Moley, another Brain Truster and later a columnist for Newsweek, took precipitous exception to this when I called about information technology. He pointed to evidence in a book of his, ''Afterwards 7 Years,'' that showed the phrase was suggested by him. How did Professor Moley react when it was pointed out that his old colleague remembered history somewhat differently?
He did not direct his ire at the man personally; Raymond the Mole did not say that Sammy the Rose had a lousy retentivity or was mistaken or incorrect. Instead, he chose a frail but unbudging usage: ''When Rosenman says that he wrote it,'' Moley said, ''he is in fault.''
Disputants who use ceremonious phrases like that are in a graceful state. Where do y'all hear an argument these days that goes ''You're in schism'' or ''You're in error''? I'1000 in awe.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/07/magazine/on-language-shoo-in.html
0 Response to "Where Did Shoo Shoo Come From Peer Reviewed Articles"
Post a Comment