#83779
10/18/2002 2:00 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
So I said, `I'm going to write a letter. The world is getting
too sensitive. Anybody who thinks otherwise needs to have
his dog-gone brain examined.' `Good idea,' said my
sensitive friend, `but avoid using that metaplasm...'"
Richard A. Zidonis, Proper Address of the Question, The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), Nov 8, 1991.
The only possible metaplasm I see in the quote is "dog" substituted for "God". Is not "sensitive" friend
then hypersensitive to object to such a substitution?
|
|
|
#83780
10/18/2002 2:31 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I thought it was the whole word, dog-gone, substituting for god-damn. Isn't it?
|
|
|
#83781
10/18/2002 3:08 PM
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Bean: the definition of "metaplasm" seems to apply only to words, not to phrases.
And the change from "damned" to "gone" seems far too extensive to be metaplasm.
Also, "metathesis" would be more accurate for change from "God" to "dog"/
|
|
|
#83782
10/18/2002 3:09 PM
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
you're on the beam, Bean. U.S. slang. [Generally taken as a deformation of the profane God damn: cf. dang, darn. But some think the original form was dog on it, to be compared with pox on it! etc.]
|
|
|
#83783
10/18/2002 3:22 PM
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
"metathesis" would be more accurate for change from "God" to "dog"
A change in a word, for example by adding, omitting, inverting, or transposing its letters, syllables, or sounds.
From which it would seem that metathesis is one form of metaplasm. The use of gone for damn(ed) would follow from the replacement of the d at the end of God with the g of dog thus suggesting the d of damn(ed) be replaced with a d. But *gamn(ed) isn[t a word, so the word gone is used instead. Metaplasm at three different points in one two-word phrase.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,916
Posts230,436
Members9,211
| |
Most Online17,319
Apr 8th, 2026
|
|
|
|
