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<Asa Lovejoy>
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Whence comes this expression? What does it mean?

Clueless Asa
 
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We discussed this a while back in this thread. Michael Quinion of World Wide Words has an article and so does The Word Detective, Evan Morris.


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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I don't know about other Americans, but I've not heard it used here (I've only read about it), and I suspect it's more common in England.

The Quinion article, mentioning other uses of "Bob," reminded me of a group of limericks that Bob wrote on OEDILF on "Bob." They were good! I see I mentioned them, too, in the thread that arnie linked to.

I found this interesting from the Quinion article:
quote:
Since the very word nepotism derives from the Italian word for nephew (from the practice of Italian popes giving preferment to nephews, a euphemism for their bastard sons), the association here seems more than apt.
I did not know that's where nepotism originated. (By the way, wouldn't you say "preference," rather than "preferment?")
 
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the Italian word for nephew

The Italian word neopte is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis, 'grandson; nephew; descendant; spendthrift'.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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Originally posted by Kalleh: By the way, wouldn't you say "preference," rather than "preferment?"


preferment has a more specific sense which applies here: promotion or appointment to a position or office [Compact OED]
 
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