[lit-ideas] Count Your Blessings
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 19:54:41 EDT
In a message dated 8/5/2004 10:48:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
In addition to all the OED data, there's this song my mother used to sing to
us when we were kids.
"God bless my underwear,
they were my only pair,
I adored them,
but I tored them,
on the seat of the old
rocking chair."
That was the holiest song I ever learned.
----
Interstingly, 'bless' is a homonym. It can be from F. 'blesser', to injure.
The OED reads: "Often associated with bless-1, either humorously or in
ignorance." One quote being:
When he did level to shoot, he
blessed himself with his peece,
and killed them with the pellat.
Hellowes, Guewara's Farm, 1577
For the linguist, it can be very tricky that speakers don't go on to use
'bless-1', 'bless-2', etc. -- and other forms of distinguishing what they mean
-- even if Chomsky et co. suppose the context will be obvious?
Cheers,
JL
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