Re: CHAT: Murgatroyd (was somehow Re: Lenition)
| From: | Dan Sulani <dnsulani@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, June 27, 2002, 4:35 |
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On 26 June, the GrayWizard wrote:
> I believe Red Skelton, the comedian, used the term "Heavens to Mergatroid"
> while playing his TV character Clem Kadiddlehopper back in the '50s.
So, Hannah-Barbera were simply attaching to one of their characters
a piece of "shtick" originally made famous by a real-life commedian!
Anyhow, this thread's got me thinking. "Heavens to M" seems to
be a pretentious takeoff on the more prosaic (American?)
"Heavens to Betsy!" (or could Betsy be an intentionally
less pretentious version of Murgatroid?).
Still, it sounds to me like some sort of euphemism.
The only other phrase I can think of, offhand, of the
"X to Y" type is "honest to goodness". meaning "genuine."
Anybody know the derivation of "Heavens to _____"
(Betsy and/or Murgatroid [or however it's spelled] )?
Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a
A word is an awesome thing.