XP: Written Word/English Language&Reading Material

I saw this in reference to certain politicians. It is a new term to me.

Knuckle Dragger

English
Etymology

An allusion to the practice of some large primates of walking upright with their knuckles close to the ground.

Noun

knuckle dragger (plural knuckle draggers)

(idiomatic, often derogatory) A large, strong, and rather dimwitted person. quotations ▼

Synonyms

Neanderthal
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Quite descriptive.

. . . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

I saw this in reference to certain politicians. It is a new term to me.

Knuckle Dragger

English
Etymology

An allusion to the practice of some large primates of walking upright with their knuckles close to the ground.

Noun

knuckle dragger (plural knuckle draggers)

(idiomatic, often derogatory) A large, strong, and rather dimwitted person. quotations ▼

Synonyms

Neanderthal
Click to expand...

Quite descriptive.

. . . . . . . Pete
Click to expand...

It is disrespecting Neanderthals to call them knuckle draggers. Apes are knuckle draggers and so are the dimwits who get called that. There's no need to insult other varieties of humans (whose genes, after all, we share).
 
From english.stackexchange.com...

Is it "a tough row to hoe?", or "a tough road to hold?"

The original form of the phrase appears to be "a hard row to hoe". Now, "tough row to hoe" is found at least as far back as 1890:

while 1963 seems to be the earliest occurrence of "tough road to hold", and it is noted as an error:

But we find "hard row to hoe" even earlier. It's found in Dickens' All the Year Round magazine in 1890, but the earliest use is no later than 1818:
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. . . . . Pete
 
I recently used the term and realized I had no idea how to put it to paper. I've always just said verbally "tough road a ho" because that's how I've heard it said.

I decided to look into the real form of the phrase and found the info interesting.

. . . . . . Pete
 
I used to have students who wrote it's a doggy dog world. No doubt students still write that. They're just not my students any longer. What did you think tough road a ho could possibly have meant literally?
 
Figures of speech have literal meanings as well. Otherwise they aren't figures but their own literal meanings. If you don't know the literal basis of the figure in question, you should probably avoid using it.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'd never heard anything other than a tough row to hold.
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Seriously?

What is it about a particular row that would make it harder to hold than any other?

Meanwhile hoeing a difficult row is quite easily understood to a gardener.
 
originally posted by Tristan Welles:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'd never heard anything other than a tough row to hold.
Click to expand...

Seriously?

What is it about a particular row that would make it harder to hold than any other?

Meanwhile hoeing a difficult row is quite easily understood to a gardener.
Click to expand...
Quite right. Typo for tough row to hoe.

Actually, though, both tough road to hold and tough row to hold could be construed to support the figural meaning. A military commander could be giving an order to his troops to hold a road at all costs and informing them that it will be a tough road to hold. Equally, since hold can mean maintain in good condition, a tough row to hold could mean a row that, for some geological reason, was more difficult than usual to keep in good condition. I was complaining about a tough road a ho, which I can't manage to construe, since the nearest meaning--a tough street for a prostitute to have to work on--would have to be a tough street for a ho, and why is ho in dialect, but not the rest of the sentence?
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg: Florida Jim, Mark and Nathan should all ask their spouses what they taste when they taste riesling.
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Jonathan, thankfully, absent the Oxford comma, you added in "all" to clarify what you intended to mean. Otherwise, your comment would have suggested your comment is directed to Jim and saying what Mark and Nathan should ask their spouses.

. . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Which shows how unnecessary the Oxford comma is.
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to which the humble oxford comma replies, "on the contrary, my few efficient pixels have replaced an entire word, and at the same time have made the sentence more pithy and less wordy".
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey: thankfully, absent the Oxford comma, you added in "all" to clarify what you intended to mean.
Click to expand...

originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg: Which shows how unnecessary the Oxford comma is.
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Jonathan, given your talent as a wordsmith, your statement here begs the question, "Why is having to add words(s) better than simply using a single punctuation (comma)?"

. . . . . . Pete[/quote]
 
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