[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Wotsit
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:43:58 -0700
David Ritchie:
I'm as hard nosed as whatever animal is it that has a hard nose and
inspired the metaphor,
(what on earth would that be exactly...hard-headed is easy...some
misinterpretation of the rhino perhaps? and why is it that the
hardness of a nose has come to be a measure of anything? boxing
possibly?)
The only hard-nosed animal mentioned in the OED's account is a dog
with a poor sense of smell. How we get from there to stubborness is
left unclear.
---------------
1889 Cent. Dict., *Hard-nosed, in hunting, having little or no sense
of smell: said of dogs. 1927 Hollis St. Theatre Prog. (Boston) 19
Sept. Gloss., Hard nosed, stubborn. 1949 Penguin New Writing XXXVIII.
49 And there there is a lock, too, with the saint who welched three
times in charge of the keys, who can be trusted not to be too
hard-nosed. 1965 Economist 3 Apr. 27/2 Washington has got pretty
?hard-nosed? about criticism of its Congo policy. 1971 New Society 7
Jan. 26/1 A whole host of prophetic ravers and hard-nosed technocrats.
1973 Times 8 Feb. 23/2 Dolly's hard-nosed business approach to
publishers probably did not have universal support.
---------------
Robert Paul
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
