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#115162 11/04/03 12:51 AM
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Is it dead as a doorknob or dead as a doornail

Since both a doorknob and a doornail can in no way be dead, the answer isn't obvious.


#115163 11/04/03 12:57 AM
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I've never heard the -knob version, Belle. :-)


#115164 11/04/03 01:17 AM
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Dear belMarduk: Dead as a doorknob is a poor copy of dead as a doornail, which is very old. Here is URL to Quinion's discussion of it:
http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-dea1.htm


#115165 11/04/03 01:22 AM
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I have heard tell of people being called doorknobs...



formerly known as etaoin...
#115166 11/04/03 01:29 AM
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Oh yeah, eta--dumb as a doorknob. I'd forgotten that.


#115167 11/04/03 01:31 AM
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Hmm, thanks for the link Bill and the answers all.

I have heard tell of people being called doorknobs... but not here

And maybe you're right eta, I have heard that expression also..maybe that's why I mixed it up.


#115168 11/04/03 01:41 AM
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dumb as a doorknob

There was a guy in my fraternity pledge class who we all called Stump ... because he was as dumb as a stump. One suspects this to be a localism.


#115169 11/04/03 01:48 AM
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I would think so. Usually, that is the nick-name given to somebody who's missing a limb. Stumpy. It's a guy thing from what I can see.


#115170 11/04/03 01:49 AM
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There was a guy in my fraternity pledge class who we all called Stump
Gee, I wonder who that could have been, S... I mean, Father Steve.


#115171 11/04/03 02:42 AM
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Gee, I wonder who that could have been, S... I mean, Father Steve.

Nope. It wasn't me. It was a guy from a small town in north central Washington where the high school graduated maybe ten students at a time. Stump was a wonderful character, who did our house grade point average a lot of damage. He joined the Marines without receiving his degree and we never heard from him again.







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