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addict
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From my current reading:
[London cabbie discussing a bare-knuckle fighter] "Not that f***ing tall, mind you, but built like a brick sh**house and just as hard to move."
Brian Matthews: As the story goes [collection of his newspaper articles]. Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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A "mischief night" was just that. Mischief one night a year. Now we have muggers and miscreants running loose night and day. "The good ole days" really were the good ole days
I guess if you consider a cold wooden seat on a sub-zero night and wading through the effluvia of animals that didn't have the luxury of that cold wooden seat to be "good" then maybe they were the good ole days.
Not to mention a zillion other things that contributed to an average life span of approximately 35 years.
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Carpal Tunnel
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BTW, byb, [couldn't resist that phrase!] that's precisely why I chose the word "untippable".
Presumably everyone is familiar with the meaning of "a Mae West", using her name as a noun? (cross-thread to "products named for people")
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Presumably everyone is familiar with the meaning of "a Mae West", using her name as a noun?Funny you mentioned that, Keiva. I just learned the word "antonomasia" today, and was vaguely surprised to find that a Board search came up empty. Neat word, huh?  .
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Carpal Tunnel
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Neat word, Gia. Unfamiliar was I. How did you happen to stumble across it?
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Presumably everyone is familiar with the meaning of "a Mae West", using her name as a noun?
Um, no. Here a Mae West is usually
a) the actress
b) a small circular white cake about 3 1/2 inches in diameter x 1 inch high, covered in chocolate and filled with a creamy yellow vanilla frosting.
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old hand
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old hand
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The night before Hallowe'en was called "gate-night" in Manitoba.
I also associate "built like a brick s**ithouse" with someone (male or female) who is big and muscular. It never, ever, ever occurred to me that it had a more specific anatomical connotation.
There was a store in Winnipeg called "The Brick Shirthouse". I don't know if it's still there.
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http://www.bartleby.com/61/32/A0353200.htmlBy def 2, it doesn't seem to quite fit the bill. Calling any actress (or any huskily sexy actress) a Mae West would fit, but I don't see it for a life jacket or a small circular white cake. I don't find eponomasia in the discredited AHD. Perhaps it's in the discredited OED. tsuwm?
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Faldage, i don't see it either for a small white cake, but a vest, that creates two large bulges on the chest, and you don't understand why it's called a mae west?
my condolences, AnnaS, i have my doubts about men,in general, but faldage (and most of the motely crew here) seem brighter than most.. it he doesn't get a mae west, then you sure have your work cut out for yourself. No wonder you haven't been able to post for a while!
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Carpal Tunnel
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you don't understand why it's called a mae west?
I understand why the life vest is called a mae west. What I was *trying to say is that I don't see is calling a life vest a mae west as an example of antonomasia.
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