Klarinet Archive - Posting 000116.txt from 2004/05

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: RE: [kl] Premiere of Among Friends
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 15:43:12 -0400

Jeremy=A0Schiffer wrote:

> "Pig's Eye Pilsner" beer

Being OT, I didn't speculate about this on-list; but after reading about
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, I searched a couple of books for the
derivation of "in a pig's eye". I couldn't find the answer. except
that (and this is certainly stretching a point) there was a Middle
English word (pigsnye) which was often mispronounced to sound like
"pig's eye" until it became obsolete. Several books hint that
mispronouncing it this way became equivalent to baby talk and/or lack of
education. Today, "in a pig's eye" indicates derision, and perhaps
this is a holdover from mispronouncing the old "pigsnye", which meant
simply "eye", not a particular animal's eye. Who knows?

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