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#147957 09/14/05 09:03 AM
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Looking at the translation and adaptation of children's books, we found this in one of Lucy M Montgomery's Anne books from the early twentieth c.:

"Confound Corcoran! If he couldn't put his meaning into less dangerous phrases he'd get into trouble some of these long-come-shorts."

I've never seen this word "long-come-shorts", and have not been able to find it in my dictionaries. I can understand the meaning being something like "one of these days", but is it a standalone word, or do you only find it in the expression "some of these long-come-shorts"? Is there a singular form? Where does it come from, and how did it get that shape?


#147958 09/14/05 12:04 PM
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Marianna, I have never heard this phrase before in my life...[waiting for tsumn or tsumbody....]


#147959 09/14/05 02:56 PM
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That sounds like something Whiskers-on-the-moon would say, but I don't remember for sure. What about this, Marianna? Could your quote be a rephrasing of this, maybe?
the long and short of it(n) :the brief result or end of a matter; upshot. _The long and short of it was that they've moved to Japan.

This is from:
http://www.geocities.com/informalenglish/L.html

I want to list where I found that, but first, a warning: to all those who are prone to dictionary-browsing--don't go here if you need to get off your computer soon. One of the more unusual listings is: English, as She is Spoke at McMurdo - a guide to slang and jargon of the Antarctic.
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/links.htm


#147960 09/14/05 03:01 PM
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I think there may be an ellipsis and a missing comma rendering the whole thing a funny vernacular:

"he'd get into trouble for some of these, long-come-shorts,"

that is, "he'd get into trouble some of these when long comes to short" or "one of these days".

Out of curiosity, do they give any examples of the "dangerous" sentences?


#147961 09/14/05 03:46 PM
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cons> I have never heard this phrase before in my life... [waiting...]

connie, if you're waiting for affirmation, you have it from me!

92 ghits, almost all stemming directly from Avonlea; interestingly, long-come-short gets 79 ghits mostly from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus.

"'Heyo, Brer Tarrypin, whar you bin dis long-come-short?' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

"'Lounjun 'roun', Brer Fox, lounjun 'roun',' sez Brer Tarrypin.

"'You don't look sprucy like you did, Brer Tarrypin,' sez Brer Fox, sezee.

"'Lounjun 'roun' en suffer'n', sez Brer Tarrypin, sezee.




#147962 09/14/05 04:30 PM
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At first I took it for a folk-spelling of Lancôme.



Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#147963 09/15/05 09:41 AM
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Many thanks, everybody. I gather from your information that it is some form of dialectal expression (perhaps just Canadian?), and tsuwm provides an example in the singular, which is interesting.

Jackie, who on earth is Whiskers-on-the-Moon? [goggly-eyicon]

Inselpeter, the speaker is referring generally to Corcoran's way of not beating around the bush and speaking plainly even when he's negotiating something shady. In this case, they've been unmistakeably overheard while Corcoran was offering the speaker money in exchange for his vote, and the speaker accepted it.




#147964 09/15/05 10:46 AM
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Still, if the hits are mostly Uncle Remus, I bet it's an invented vernacular, and I ain't-a-budgin'. But, "that's the way things go in this life, Bra'er Fox, somes goes up an' somes goes down."

;-)


#147965 09/15/05 10:57 AM
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> if the hits are mostly Uncle Remus

tsuwm said: > 92 ghits, almost all stemming directly from Avonlea; interestingly, long-come-short gets 79 ghits mostly from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus.

plural be avonlea, singular be uncle remus.



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#147966 09/15/05 11:47 AM
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I'm not familiar with Montgomery, but I was a teenager before I realized tarbaby was supposed to be perjorative. Does Anne take place in a rural community?

Harvest time is the both the busiest part of the year, and the most financially important - and in one of those cosmic jokes on farmers, it arrives as daylight starts to be severely constricted.

To misquote Macdonald Carey, "As sands through an hourglass, these are the long-come-shorts of our lives."

-----
Words fail me
(Turnabout is fair play.)


-----
Words fail me. (Turnabout is fair play.)
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