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stranger
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stranger
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I was hoping someone else may have made this leap on putsch. After reading about Hitler's attempted putsch, I realized he had actually "screwed the putsch" - and thought that maybe our English version was just a bastardization of the German. Certainly in usage, it is closer to a failed attempt at something big than intimate relations with a canine. 
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Forive a senile old codger who can't spend much time interpreting others' threads because he doesn't have that much left. To "screw the pooch" is of course a very common expression, but to sub "putsch" is indeed very rare, as in
Jennifer's History and Stuff: Ask JenI tried doing a search for "screw the putsch" and got nowhere, but one can imagine why it might happen that the phrase, as written, would always be the ...
jenlars.mu.nu/archives/004760.html
dalehileman
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stranger
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stranger
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Sorry, didn't realize I was being too oblique so as to require interpretation. No wonder I normally do not participate.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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It is U as in "put," not as in "pooch." If screw is used in vernacular German it is likely a post-war, American import.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Quote:
Sorry, didn't realize I was being too oblique so as to require interpretation. No wonder I normally do not participate.
You say this based on one person's reply? Welcome, mcmaine. I've never heard the term "screw the pooch" before, thus have nothing to contribute.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Welcome, mcmaine.
Anna I've heard it used in a humorous way to describe an embarassing error. "Boy, you really screwed the pooch on that one!"
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It is, I suppose, unseemly to admit any familiarity with this phrase. But ... when I have heard it used, it is usually in the sense of "wasting time" or "goofing off."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I heard it to mean the same as Alex - having made an embarassing error, something you really should have known better not to do.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Father Steve, a colleague of mine uses the seemingly-synonymous (and equally pornographic) expression "dicking the dog" to mean to waste time, goof off, or work in a very inefficient manner. But the uses are distinct around here: dicking the dog is one thing, screwing the pooch is another.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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