From: "Judy Prince" <[log in to unmask]>
> Apparently I misunderstood you, Martin. I'm gonna get Robin to work this
> all out; he's a research engine the likes of which p'raps only his
> Scottish
> research-preceder-of-the-OED may've been more focused for longer periods
> of
> time. But, then, we all can't be Scottish, alas.
> And I do think that Flatears' theory is hilarious, if not probable.
>
> Best,
>
> Judy
>
> 2009/5/8 Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> I don't quite get you, Judy - Partridge says there is such an association
>> in
>> historical slang. So there was nothing very clever about referring to
>> both
>> the actual mangle & the metaphorical one in one phrase - but its use
>> apparently diminished when the slang term lost its currency. There is no
>> connection with "wet behind the ears", whatever Flatears may maintain.
>> mj
>> Creator - A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh.
>> H.L.Mencken
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Judy Prince
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Friday, May 08, 2009 4:01 PM
>> Subject: Re: question (UK)
>>
>>
>> You would turn all honest labour to naughty business, Martin. And
>> everyone
>> knows that the foundation of all knowledge, honesty, humility, and love
>> is
>> what Gustave Courbet painted so nicely, his "L'Origine du Monde". [His
>> "Man
>> with Pipe" self-portrait's his most sublime work, I think, tho.]
>> Despite your preoccupation with all things pudend, you still cannot find
>> a
>> citation-connection between it and a mangle, huh? More's the pity.
>> Surely
>> there's a first step towards the phrase which's much more prosaic than
>> that,
>> I'm thinking. I only remember from girlhood that our mangle was a
>> washer,
>> part of which were rollers that when fed the clothing thru, wrang them of
>> washwater. I understand that the mangle was, tho, by itself an earlier
>> form
>> of a washer. Your own connection between 'pudend' and 'mangle'; viz,
>> that
>> whoring paid more than laundering, sounds at least plausible. But
>> somehow
>> it seems too clever to've had common use.
>>
>> And how do we, in any event, link "Has your mother sold the mangle yet?"
>> to
>> "wet behind the ears"? Maybe not at all. Only my strange fierce notion
>> of
>> a relationship, p'raps.
>> I do wish to be a liddle dormouse in London at that time and hearing them
>> say these phrases, not as now, having to depend upon the scribblers of
>> the
>> phrases. The speakers of "Has your mother sold her mangle" would've
>> known
>> its meaning, for goodness' sakes! Only wish WE did.
>>
>> Best, and thanks for the enlightened help,
>>
>> Judy
>>
>> >
>>
>
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