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More Texas Expressions from Texas Monthly.

More Texas Expressions from Texas Monthly.

General Advice

Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.
A worm is the only animal that can’t fall down.
Never sign nothing by neon.
Just because a chicken has wings don’t mean it can fly.
Keep your saddle oiled and your gun greased.
You can’t get lard unless you boil the hog.
If you cut your own firewood, it’ll warm you twice.
There’s more than one way to break a dog from sucking eggs.
Give me the bacon without the sizzle.
Don’t hang your wash on someone else’s line.
Do God’s will, whatever the hell it may be.
Lick that calf again? (Say what?)
Why shear a pig?
Don’t snap my garters.
A guilty fox hunts his own hole.
Quit hollering down the rain.
Don’t rile the wagon master.
Better to keep your mouth shut and seem a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
The barn door’s open and the mule’s trying to run. (Your fly’s down.)
Don’t get all het up about it.
There’s a big difference between the ox and the whiffletree.
There’s no tree but bears some fruit.
Skin your own buffalo.
You better throw a sop to the dogs.
Don’t squat on your spurs.
Any mule’s tail can catch cockleburs.
A drought usually ends with a flood.
If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
A lean dog runs fast.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Celebratory

Let’s shoot out the lights.
We’ll paint the town and the front porch.
Let’s hallelujah the county.
Put the little pot in the big pot.
Throw your hat over the windmill.
I’ll be there with bells on.
I’ll wear my Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
He’s all gussied up.

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Big

Fat as a boardinghouse cat.
Fat as a town dog.
She’s warm in winter, shady in summer.
He don’t care what you call him as long as you call him to supper.
So big he looks like he ate his brother.
So big he has to sit down in shifts.
Big as Brewster County.
Big as Dallas.
Big as a Brahma bull.
She’d rather shake than rattle.
He’s big enough to bear hunt with a branch.
He’s all spread out like a cold supper.
Wide as two ax handles.
He’ll eat anything that don’t eat him first.

Cheap

Tight as Dick’s hatband.
Tight as a tick.
Tight as a clothesline.
Tight as a fiddle string.
Tight as wallpaper.
Tight as a wet boot.
Tight enough to raise a blister.
So tight he squeaks when he walks.
He’ll squeeze a nickel till the buffalo screams.
She has short arms and deep pockets.

Crazy

He’s got a big hole in his screen door.
She’s one bubble off plumb.
She’s one brick shy of a load.
She’s two sandwiches short of a picnic.
He’s a few pickles short of a barrel.
There’s a light or two burned out on his string.
He’s missing a few buttons off his shirt.
The porch light’s on but no one’s home.
He’s lost his vertical hold.
He’s overdrawn at the memory bank.
I hear you clucking, but I can’t find your nest.
She’s got too many cobwebs in the attic.
Crazy as a bullbat.
Crazy as Larrabee’s calf.

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https://www.ww2online.org/content/donor-support

https://www.ww2online.org/content/donor-support

We’ve spent several years researching names, places, and dates related to experiences in World War II. These veterans were born in a United States that spoke English differently than we do now. Think about how Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn sound in some of those old movies. Many of them had never ventured more than 50 miles from the place they were born, and they carried those accents and eccentricities of speech for the rest of their lives.

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The places they visited were far-flung and exotic, and we’re capturing the place names, but also their remembered wonder at seeing those places for the first time. The shock of memories about huge coconut crabs on tropical islands juxtaposed with the sudden, bloody death of the guy right next to you.

And these guys remember the men who were lost—they remember their first and last names and often theor middle initials! They remember where that guy was from. And they remember the sudden, ghastly details of their deaths.

Education seems to have been pretty sporadic, and their reasons for enlisting are as varied as the men who enlisted, but they all shared some degree of naivete. Some have a greater understanding of infantry than others, but none of them were prepared for the realities of war.

They remember their lives before the war so carefully, but to us transcribing, it often seems like a landscape from the Wizard of Oz, more foreign than some of the locales they visited. Men who remember plowing acres of land with horses, and futures that offered only the option of doing what your dad, and his dad, had done.

We forget that most of the U.S. was unaware of the horrors of the Holocaust when we ventured into the war. And I think we forget how united Americans were in enlisting and joining the fight. We’ve heard many veterans comment that everybody was enlisting. My mother used to talk about how important radio was in those days, and veterans and people on the Home Front alike were stirred by Roosevelt’s “a day that will live in infamy speech.”

Listening to these oral histories has been a privilege, and researching their experiences “over there” has been a challenge.

Thanks to the National World War II Museum for the experience of a lifetime, and the chance to capture the descriptions of thousands of experiences of a lifetime.

You can find us here: https://www.ww2online.org/content/donor-support

6 English Words from Yiddish

6 English Words from Yiddish

Our little list is not the whole ‘megillah’, but it ain’t ‘bubkes’

Bubkes

English takes on new words all the time. We’ve been borrowing liberally from other language – French, Greek, and German to mention just a few – for centuries. More recently, in the last hundred years, we’ve added many Yiddish words in our melting pot.

What follows is a list of some of the more well-known words of Yiddish origin to have entered English. It should be noted that these are not direct English translations of Yiddish words; they are words from Yiddish that have been sufficiently naturalized in our language to be included in an English language dictionary.

Definition:

: the least amount; also : nothing

About the Word:

The Yiddish word bubkes (also spelled in both English and Yiddish as bupkes or bubkus) is thought to be short for the colorful kozebubkes, which means ‘goat droppings’ – something you may want to consider the next time you find yourself saying ‘I’ve got bubkes.’

Example:

“And I got bubkes for alimony and child support. Nice.” – Olivia Goldsmith, The First Wives Club, 2008

Glitch

Definition:

: a usually minor malfunction

About the Word:

It should be stated at the outset that the parentage of glitch is not assured, something we should not hold against so useful a word. Merriam-Webster states (as do many other dictionaries) that the word is ‘perhaps from Yiddish glitsh,’ a word that means ‘slippery place.’ The first known print use of the word is from 1940, when it was reported as being used in the slang of radio announcers, referring to an egregious mispronunciation.

Example:

“United Airlines Resumes Flights Delayed by Computer Glitch.” – New York Times (headline), 8 July 2015

Klutz

Definition:

: a person who often drops things, falls down, etc. : a clumsy person

About the Word:

The story of klutz is a classic immigrant’s tale. The word came to our language but a few generations ago, began its hardscrabble life as a non-standard lexical item, and through dint of hard work and having the good fortune of beginning and ending with two very funny letters, managed to make itself a widely accepted and useful member of our language. There does not appear to be any written evidence of klutz in English prior to 1959, when Carl Reiner explained the meaning of the word to the Los Angeles Times: “[a klutz is] a dancer who dances as good as he can, but instead of just applause he also gets laughter.” It comes from the Yiddish word klots, which means ‘wooden beam.’

Example:

“Incidentally, the kid used all our equipment, fiddling like the klutz he is with a brand-new Panavision camera, which now when I press the button makes a sound like when you turn slowly the wood handle on those tin party noisemakers Elsie calls groggers.” – Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy, 2007

Bagel

Definition:

: a firm doughnut-shaped roll traditionally made by boiling and then baking

About the Word:

The bagel, both the humblest and mightiest of all bread forms, is, unsurprisingly, of Yiddish origins. The word that names it comes from that language’s word beygl. It is widely speculated (at least by those who do such speculation) that the Yiddish word is descended from the Middle High German word böugel, which is from another German word for ring or bracelet.

Example:

“Among the most frequently heard complaints of New Yorkers who visit Israel is that ‘you can’t get a good bagel in Tel Aviv.'” – Ray Jones, Great American Stuff: A Celebration of People, Places, and Products that Make Us Happy to Live in America, 1997.

-nik

Definition:

: a person connected to an activity, an organization, a movement, etc.

About the Word:

“You’re always so persistent about things. You’re such a nudnik. Why do you ask me to eat shrimp? What the hell is so big about shrimp?” – Thomas J. Cottle, When the Music Stopped: Discovering My Mother, 2004

Example:

There are many different kinds of -niks, a handy word ending which comes from the Yiddish suffix of the same spelling, and denotes a person who is connected to a group or a cause. Among the more common words that utilize this are beatnikneatnikpeaceniknudnick, and the ever popular no-goodnik. Russian also has this suffix, and English has borrowed -nik words from Russian too, including refusenik and Raskolnik (a dissenter from the Russian Orthodox Church).

Futz

Definition:

: fool around

About the Word:

Futz is a word that has the sort of etymology that will make small children think that studying language is an enjoyable pursuit. It is thought to have come (no one is entirely certain) from a modification of the Yiddish phrase arumfartsn zikh, the literal translation of which is ‘to fart around.’

Example:

“But, as he got closer, I noticed he looked pretty sober, like there was more on his mind than just futzing around shooting the bull and getting in everybody’s way.” – Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion, 1964

Megillah

Definition:

: a long involved story or account

About the Word:

For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th century megillah began to be used in a figurative sense to refer to a long or complicated tale. It comes to English from the Yiddish word megile, which is itself from the Hebrew mĕgillāh, meaning ‘scroll.’

Example:

“Yesterday I was sore on the whole Megillah down here; to-day you couldn’t drive me away mit wild animals.” – New York Tribune, 25 Feb. 1914

A QUICK CMOS review: Commas relative to parentheses and brackets

A QUICK CMOS review: Commas relative to parentheses and brackets

6: Punctuation

6.18: Commas relative to parentheses and brackets

Chapter Contents / Commas

When the context calls for a comma at the end of material in parentheses or brackets, the comma should follow the closing parenthesis or bracket. A comma never precedes a closing parenthesis. (For its rare appearance before an opening parenthesis, see the examples in 6.129.) Rarely, a comma may appear inside and immediately before a closing bracket as part of an editorial interpolation (as in the last example; see also 13.59).

After several drummers had tried out for the part (the last having destroyed the kit), the band decided that a drum machine was their steadiest option.

Her delivery, especially when she would turn to address the audience (almost as if to spot a long-lost friend), was universally praised.

“Conrad told his assistant [Martin], who was clearly exhausted, to rest.”

“The contents of the vault included fennel seeds, tweezers, [straight-edged razors,] and empty Coca-Cola cans.”

Here are a few comments from the CMOS forum. These examples should help this rule stick in your mind!

• I went to Bob’s (he didn’t realize I was on my way) and caught him kissing my girlfriend.
Lowercase “he” and exclude the period at the end of the sentence within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

• I told Mary (does she think I’m stupid?) that I was aware of the affair.
Lowercase “does” and use the question mark within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

• Joe may apologize (he is such a creep!) for the affair.
Lowercase “he” and can I use the exclamation point within parens? Is this correctly punctuated?

I think that the only terminal punctuation that is omitted in parens is the period. The question mark and exclamation mark, I believe, are the only ones that can be used at the end of a sentence within parens.

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‘Got a screwdriver?’ … ‘I do.’

‘Got a screwdriver?’ … ‘I do.’

Florencia, our QA expert, shared this note with our staff. The idea that when you shorten a phrase, it’s called an “elliptical” reply caught my eye.

Grammarphobia says: “Both of those are elliptical [emphais mine] replies, in which the verb is stranded at the end. They might be expanded as “Yes, I have [or have got] a screwdriver” and “Yes, I do have a screwdriver.”

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Transcriptionists and clients often ask about the use of the ellipsis (. . . ) instead of an em dash (—).

An ellipsis indicates that words have been purposely left out of a quote. So, you might say the Constitution of the US says that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . ” The rest of the sentence is not included intentionally. 

These two replies leave out some words intentionally, for brevity, or idiomatically. 

An em-dash indicates an abrupt break in a sentence: “You know, the Constitution says . . . all men are created equal—I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

An em-dash indicates an interruption. In this case, the speaker is interrupting themselves.

This explanation of the idiomatic use of the helper verb have at the end of the sentence is enlightening!

Q: If I ask a question like “Have you got a screwdriver?” and someone answers, “I do,” it sets my teeth on edge. I extrapolate that to mean “I do got.” Is that answer incorrect, or is it just me?

A: The use of “I do” in reply to “have you got” is a normal and correct construction in English. There is no “rule” against this common usage.

What’s thrown you off is the idiomatic verb construction “have got.” Both the Oxford English Dictionary and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language say “have got” here means “have” (in the sense of own or possess). Oxford calls it a “specialized” usage while the Cambridge Grammar calls it an informal idiom.

So in the type of question you mention, “have got” and “have” are interchangeable. And whether it’s worded “Have you got a screwdriver?” or “Do you have a screwdriver?” the question has several grammatically correct replies, including (1) “Yes I have” and (2) “Yes I do.”

Both of those are elliptical replies, in which the verb is stranded at the end. They might be expanded as “Yes I have [or have got] a screwdriver” and “Yes I do have a screwdriver.”

So as you can see, the “do” in reply #2 is elliptical for “do have,” not “do got.” As the Cambridge Grammar explains, the “got” in the idiomatic “have got” cannot be stranded at the end of a sentence. This means that in an elliptical construction with a verb at the end, an auxiliary like “have” or “do” is used.

Keep in mind that “have you got” is an idiom to begin with, so it’s not unexpected that the common reply—“Yes I do,” or “No I don’t”—should be idiomatic too.

Fowler’s Modern English Usage (4th ed.) says that in answer to a “have you got” question, the “do” reply is a familiar feature of both British and American English. Fowler’s, edited by Jeremy Butterfield, offers this analysis:

“Question: Have you got a spare room? Answer: Yes, we do. This apparently illogical use of do, replacing have as the auxiliary verb, arises because the question implicitly being answered is ‘Do you have a spare room?’ It is a common pattern in AmE and causes less surprise to British visitors than formerly, since it has also become a feature of BrE.”

In ordinary usage, rather than in the idiom, “have got” is the present perfect tense of the verb “get,” with “have” as the auxiliary (as in “I have got infected”). But in the idiom we’re discussing, the OED says, “have got” functions as the present-tense equivalent of “have.”

And “have” in the idiomatic “have got” is the main verb (not an auxiliary). So both grammatically and semantically, “I have got” = “I have.” In fact, the question  “Have you got a screwdriver?” could be rephrased more formally as “Have you a screwdriver?”

(We might add that many speakers find a sentence like “Have you a screwdriver?” to be excessively formal. Americans in particular seem to prefer questions phrased with “do” when there’s a direct object: “Do you have a screwdriver?”)

You might wonder why English speakers started using the idiomatic “have got” in the first place. After all, the simple “have” performed that function for hundreds of years, and still does.

As we said in a 2014 post, there are two theories about the likely origins of this usage, which date back to Elizabethan times.

One is that the verb “have” began losing its sense of possession because of its increasing use as an auxiliary. Thus “got” was added as an informal prop.

The other theory is that “got” was originally inserted because of the tendency to use contracted forms of the verb “have.” So if a sentence like “I’ve a cat” felt unnatural or abrupt, one could use “I’ve got a cat” instead.

We should mention another familiar idiomatic use of “have got”—the one that means “must.” Here too, the “got” is not essential to the meaning. “I have got to leave” = “I have to leave” = “I must leave.”

And again, a “do” reply to this variety of “have got” question is perfectly acceptable: “Have you got to leave?” … “I do.”

The “have got” that indicates obligation or necessity is followed by a “to” infinitive, like “to leave.” (The other “have got” idiom, the one indicating possession, is followed by a direct object, like “a screwdriver.”) We wrote about this usage in 2010.

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Dummy Subjects

Dummy Subjects

Maeve Maddox at Daily Writing Tips talks about “Dummy Subjects” in her blog today. Her discussion is intriguing. I wasn’t very familiar with the expletive used in this way or with the idea of Dummy Subjects.

This bit from her blog enticed me to do some more research. So I’m going to investigate dummy subjects for my next several posts. As always, I’ll be exploring how the idea of Dummy Subjects can aid us in Capturing Voices.

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Common terms used in teaching the expletive use of it and there are “dummy it, ” “dummy there,” and “dummy subject.”

expletive: Of a word or phrase: serving merely to fill out a sentence or a metrical line without adding anything to the sense.

Dummy
A derivative of dumb (“unable to speak), dummy boasts twenty-one shades of meaning in its OED entry. There’s even a verb, to dummy up: “to render silent.”

Merriam-Webster arranges its definitions of dummy under five headings, one of which is “an imitation, copy, or likeness of something used as a substitute.” This is the word’s meaning in the general terms “newspaper dummy,” “ventriloquist’s dummy,” crash-test dummy,” and “dummy corporation.” All stand in for or act as a substitute for something else. The usage is clear.

When it comes to the grammatical terms—“dummy it,” “dummy there,” and “dummy subject”—connotation enters the picture.

Words exert power.

Some words exert so much power that they must not be spoken or written.

For the orthodox Jew, the word God is so fraught with divine power that it is written as G-d. In speech, a different word altogether—Hashem (“Name”)—is used.

An English word that centuries of contemptuous use have imbued with toxic power is now referred to as “the n-word.”

A word that seems innocuous or even pleasant to one speaker may stir feelings of discomfort in another. For example, an insect name that had always sounded romantic to me—the “gypsy moth”—has been officially changed by the Entomological Society of America. The change was prompted by the fact that—for Romani people—the word gypsy has distressing connotations.

In Anglo-Saxon times, our linguistic ancestors used the adjective dumb only to mean “speechless” or “unable to speak.” The word dummy was coined to refer to people so afflicted. It didn’t take long for the noun to acquire the meaning, “stupid person.”

It can be argued that the dummy in “dummy subject” is so totally removed from use of dummy as an accusation of stupidity as to be irrelevant. But, although words can be conveniently categorized in a dictionary, connotations often overlap in use.

Take the British word for a baby’s pacifier, for example. In the UK, crying babies are given a “dummy.” In this context, the word dummy is a substitute nipple, but it is also a means of obtaining silence from the baby.

The word dummy used to label a grammatical construction implies that there is something wrong, if not stupid, about the usage. Here are some sentences that might be said to contain a “dummy subject.”

There’s a unicorn in the garden.
There will be a time to sleep, but not now.
It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring.
It’s too late to apologize.

So what exactly is a dummy subject? And how does it figure in writing and speech? The Editor’s Manual explains:

What is a dummy subject?

A dummy subject conveys no meaning of its own but simply fills the position of subject in a sentence. The subject is whom or what a sentence is about. It usually precedes the verb.

EXAMPLES

Maya wants to travel the world.

We don’t know where Poco is.

The book you were looking for is on the bookshelf.

A sentence must have a subject. When one isn’t available, the pronouns it and there fill this position.

EXAMPLES

It is raining today. Not “is raining today.”

There is no way Farley can win this match. Not “Is no way Farley can win this match.”

Note how dummy subjects don’t refer to anything specific. Compare this with it being used as a pronoun in place of a specific noun.

EXAMPLE

Look at this wooden table. It is three hundred years old. In this sentence, it refers to something specific: a wooden table. Therefore, the word isn’t being used as a dummy subject.

TIP

The dummy subject is variously called a fake, artificial, or empty subject.