I came across a new saying a couple of days ago. I was walking behind two guys on Ludlow Ave, and I was shamelessly eavesdropping on their conversation. One guy was talking about how he used to be the best football player on his high school team. He was saying how he would do anything for the team and the team really counted on him to do whatever they needed. Then he said something that truly perplexed me. He said, "Man, I was the Gold Tooth Guy." What? What on earth could this possibly mean? He clearly said Gold Tooth Guy. His friend just nodded in recognition,so he must have known what it meant. Then I realized that this man meant that he was the Go To Guy on the team. Other phrases like this have changed in the past. A chest of drawers had now become Chester drawers. Some people have started calling Alzheimer's disease Old-timers disease. I'm sure we have all heard that it is a Doggy dog world instead of a dog eat dog world. But Gold Tooth Guy? This was really interesting to me and more than just a tad hilarious.
I've only had two linguistics classes in my life and I couldn't think of a term for what I had just heard. I raced home and told David, our resident linguist, the entire story. I then asked him what the term was for this kind of mispronunciation. David told me, "I don't know. That doesn't even sound like real linguistics. It sounds more like sociolinguistics." Great. A linguistics elitist. Anyhow, when I get home tonight (I'm at school right now) I'm going to look through my linguistics books to see if their is a more professional term for what I heard.
But something else came out of this discussion of Gold Tooth Guy Vs. Go To Guy. Apparently, I don't know what the term "Go To Guy" even means. I told David that it meant a person on the team who would "Go to it." He's the guy who does what the coaches ask of him no matter what. The Go To Guy is a hard worker. David found this about as hilarious as the original Good Tooth Guy discussion. He told me that, in fact, this is not what Go To Guy means. David says Go To Guy means that there is a person on the team that everyone "Goes to" in a clutch or important situation. We had a half hour long discussion about it. I'll admit that David has better evidence, but I've decided that I think it means both. What do you think? Also, if you have ever heard the expression Gold Tooth Guy or any other mispronunciation of a common phrase, leave a comment and tell me all about it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
This is a borderline eggcorn. An eggcorn is a misunderstood word or phrase that takes on another reasonable meaning that sounds very similar. The name for this phenomenon comes from "eggcorn" having been used instead of "acorn"--some other very common eggcorns (eggcorn 1st -- original phrase 2nd):
another thing coming/
another think coming
for all intensive purposes/
for all intents and purposes
Heimlich remover/
Heimlich maneuver (John Spartz noted this one on ADS-L)
hone in on/
home in on
(this page by the BBC has been changed, but it originally mistakenly explained the meaning of hone in instead of home in) The BBC is pretty bad about acknowledging corrections. They like to change it without admitting there was ever a mistake.
There are many many of course and you picked some good ones for illustration. There's even a website devoted to these: The Eggcorn Database.
The only thing that might keep your example from being an eggcorn is that it needs to be a feasibly re-understood phrase. But 'gold tooth guy' could make sense if the connotation of value is emphasized.
Do you mind if I mention your gold tooth guy find on the American Dialect Society LISTSERV? I would just quote you and give you the credit for finding this eggcorn "in the wild."
Mike, you really are the gold tooth guy on these questions!
Mike-
By all means, mention away!
I have thought of ways that this saying might be re-understood. I don't want to make too many assumptions or rely on stereotypes, but I have to add that these men were urban African-Americans. Perhaps, like you said, having a gold tooth connotes value or implies that one who has a gold tooth is a superstar.
Pretty sure go to guy is the one they count on to get something done when they're in a pinch. "They" being the management, of course.
Another interesting thing is that since you are in Cincinnati, there might be another meaning (and in fact the very reason that the guys thought it was Gold Tooth Guy).
Chad Johnson, the infamous Bengals Wide Receiver, is known for wearing gold teeth in his mouth...and he is definitely a "go to guy" on the team.
Good point. I never thought of the Cincinnati Bengals connection.
O.k. so this is kind of embarrassing. For a long time I thought the phrase was "Don't lick a gift horse in the mouth". Don't ask me why. It does seem a silly thing to do- lick a gift horse in the mouth. Right sage advice.
Miss you, Monica.
M.
Well, honestly, I don't know what a gift horse is, and I don't know why looking one in the mouth makes anymore sense than licking one in the mouth. Although, the second is more disgusting.
To tell the age of a horse you look at its teeth, which keep growing as it ages. We also get the expression "long in the tooth" from this fact. So if someone gives you a horse as a gift--a gift horse--then you ought not check out its teeth to see how old it is. Because it's rude.
This is my understanding anyway. Licking the gift horse in the mouth doesn't sound too good either--especially when it has that "guacamole mouth" from chewing on the bit.
I realized as I was reading this that I was a little rude myself not including you in my sign-off, Dave. I miss you too. Terribly.
M.
Post a Comment