[rollei_list] Re: Items FS 29 MAY 2009 CD's, Books, etc.
- From: "Peter K." <peterk727@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2009 08:16:55 -0700
I found this as well:
Q. What is the meaning of a Donkey's Years?"
A: This is an example of an expression that has altered its spelling over
time. "Not for donkey's ears" means not for a very long time and refers to
the length of a donkey's ears. However, they gradually stretched from the
"donkey" and turned "ears" into "years". The meaning of the expression is
the same, if it does make rather less sense than the original.
On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Don Williams <dwilli10@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> At 01:56 AM 5/31/2009, you wrote:
>
> At 12:54 AM 5/30/2009, Don Williams wrote:
>
> O.K. I give up, what's a "donkey's year"?
>
>
> In the US, a "donkey's year" is an indefinite span of years, of some
> duration. Five or ten or fifteen years. I am surprised that you had not
> heard it. Oh, wait. Perhaps it as an Appalachian Mountain expression?
> Hmm. There just was a British sage show with that name ....
>
> In any event, Don, though we've never met, we've been friends for donkey's
> years.
>
>
> True indeed.
>
> I was pretty sure that a "donkey's year" was some reasonable period of
> time, and longer than our calendar year because most donkeys move slowly.
> (There is even a joke, to be told with a Mexican accent, about a native
> moving a part of the donkey's anatomy to answer a question asked by a
> tourist. I don't remember it precisely but if you don't remember it I can
> send it off list as best as I can remember.)
>
> Now here is a real one for you, one that has never been answered, even
> thought I have been asking it for a long time. (Strange, I have to use the
> un-defined word in the sentence above even thought it don't know the
> definition).
>
> So, here goes:
>
> *I can tell you what time it is if you can tell me what time is.
>
> *Keep in mind that I'm a physicist (retired, if that is a true condition)
> and continually used a word for which I never had a good definition.
>
> DAW
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
>
--
Peter K
Ó¿Õ¬
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