ten-foot pole
Related Topics
"Jeremy Chen" sur...@kimichen.com
Recently I came across this sentence: I wouldn't get near one of the new programs in this country with a ten-foot pole.
I cannot find the meaning of the phrase "a ten-foot pole." Is it a slang?
What does it account for?
Robert Lieblich Robert.Liebl...@Verizon.net
It's a cliche. The standard phraseology is "I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole," meaning that the speaker finds "it" (whatever "it" is) so offensive that he or she would stay at least ten feet away from it and even then would not want to make any sort of contact with it. In most contexts you'll find it a lot easier just to say something like "I consider it very offensive."
--
Bob Lieblich Whose mother was a five-foot Pole
"Jack Gavin" jackga...@mail.com
... or "scary", or otherwise "to be avoided".
I've never seen the proverbial Ten-Foot Pole, but the NBA has a Seven-and-a-Half-Foot Yugoslav. (Slavko Vranes of the Portland Trail Blazers)
--
Jack Gavin
Enrico C enric...@spamcop.net
Jeremy Chen | alt.usage.english,uk.culture.language.english in <> Hi Jeremy, I am not an English native speaker, anyway I came across this idiom a few times.
I think it's usually said as "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole".
As I understand it, it means you advise against getting involved in something, because you distrust it or just because that would get you into trouble.
http://www.knls.org says it is an American idiom: "A fun American idiom is I WOULDN'T TOUCH THAT WITH A TEN-FOOT POLE The speaker is usually saying he doesn't want to get involved The pole refers to the long poles used to push barges down a canal or river You might hear an American say, 'Charlie, I don't have a clue how you get yourself involved in these situations, but I wouldn't touch that one with a ten-foot pole' Here's another example 'That salesman doesn't seem very honest I wouldn't touch one of his contracts with a ten foot pole I WOULDN'T TOUCH THAT WITH A TEN-FOOT POLE" Hope that helps :)
--
Enrico C | http://www.lillathedog.net/icling/dizionari_inglese.html
t ...@softins.clara.co.uk (Tony Mountifield)
In fact the British equivalent is simply "I wouldn't touch that with a barge-pole".
Cheers, Tony
--
Tony Mountifield Work: t...@softins.co.uk - http://www.softins.co.uk Play: t...@mountifield.org - http://tony.mountifield.org
Harvey Van Sickle harvey.n...@ntlworld.com
On 09 Jan 2004, Can you still buy "Spangles"? wrote Not really a "mis-quote": the US and UK versions are different.
In the US, it's "...with a ten-foot pole"; in the UK the wording is "...with a barge-pole".
I've never heard "...with a ten-foot barge pole"; sounds redundant to my ear.
--
Cheers, Harvey Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years; Southern England for the past 21 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey to whhvs)
David da...@dacha.freeuk.com
Not only is it redundant but the US is giving short measure again -- by two whole metres! The pole is a quarter of a chain.
--
http://www.dacha.freeuk.com/ada/07-0.htm ...can you tell me what is the correct time to boil an egg?
"Matti Lamprhey" matti-nos...@totally-official.com
Is this some new usage of "clich?©"?
Matti
t ...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux)
Are you asking about the accent? M-W gives "cliche" as a variant spelling of "clich?©". They don't date variants.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
"Matti Lamprhey" matti-nos...@totally-official.com
No -- that was my spellchecker keeping me sufficiently foreign. I was wondering why Bob described the phrase "a ten-foot pole" as a cliche.
Matti
t ...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux)
"I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole" is definitely a cliche in the US. I believe this thread has said that the British equivalent is "I wouldn't touch that with a barge-pole." (However that last may be spelled -- open, closed, or hyphenated?)
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
"Simon R. Hughes" a57998.not.this....@yahoo.no
Thus spake Donna Richoux: I think Matti is under the impression that a clich?© is nothing but a dysfunctional metaphor. There is nothing metaphorical about "I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole".
It is a trite, hackneyed phrase, however, which the NSOED grants may be called a clich?©.
--
Simon R. Hughes
Enrico C enric...@spamcop.net
Simon R. Hughes | alt.usage.english,uk.culture.language.english in <> Hmmmmmmm...
--
Enrico C ~ No native speaker
Gary Vellenzer nyc...@seznam.cz
Your posts suggest that you consider it a sparkling newly minted phrase.
I'm here to tell you that it's been around for long enough to be called a cliche.
Gary
"Matti Lamprhey" matti-nos...@totally-official.com
Your posts suggest that you consider it a sparkling newly minted phrase.
I'm here to tell you that it's been around for long enough to be called a cliche.
I'm not claiming that it's new. So is a clich?© just a phrase that's been around a long time?
Matti
"Simon R. Hughes" a57998.not.this....@yahoo.no
Thus spake Matti Lamprhey: [...] Look in the dictionary. Hackneyed phrase (which "10-foot pole" undoubtedly is), dead metaphor, whatever: all clich?©s.
--
Simon R. Hughes
"Jody Bilyeu" jodybil...@smsu.edu
Right you are.
"I am strongly disgusted by X, to such an extent that if X were a tangible object, and I were called upon for some reason to touch X, I would be so averse to doing so that even the seemingly safe remove granted by a ten-foot pole would be insufficient to mitigate my disgust." That's a metaphor, where: Tenor is disgust.
Vehicle is pole.
--
Cheers, Jody jodybil...@smsu.edu
"Matti Lamprhey" matti-nos...@totally-official.com
What is a "dead metaphor"?
How do you define a "hackneyed phrase"? NB: I'm looking for something a little more objective than "over-used" here.
Matti
"Simon R. Hughes" a57998.not.this....@yahoo.no
Thus spake Matti Lamprhey: Go for it. How would you define "clich?©"? Or has "clich?©" lost its _je ne sais pas_?
--
Simon R. Hughes
"Reinhold (Rey) Aman" a...@sonic.net
[...] Quoi.
--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman Santa Rosa, CA 95402, USA http://www.sonic.net/maledicta/contents13.html
Gary Vellenzer nyc...@seznam.cz
Mais qu'est ce que tu dis la? Je ne ne sais quoi.
Gary
"Matti Lamprhey" matti-nos...@totally-official.com
I'd go along with Partridge, who described the following types: * "fly-blown phrases" (good clich?© material in itself!), eg "explore every avenue" * "soubriquets that have lost all point and freshness", eg "The Iron Duke" * "debased quotations", eg "cups that cheer but not inebriate" "empty formulas", eg "far be it from me to ..." and "metaphors that are now pointless", which I take it is your "dead metaphor". He gives no example of this, but I ***ume that it describes a metaphor whose referent is now unfamiliar to most people. I expect you'll propose that a ten-foot pole, or a bargepole, is now an unfamiliar object and hence gives rise to a dead metaphor. All I can say is that I've used the object many many times, and the metaphor upconjures a very effective image.
So, at the end of the day, when all's said and done the bottom line is that long-established and frequently-used phrases are not for those reasons alone clich?© candidates, unless you wish to dilute the label beyond utility.
Matti
| To Top |