Date:    Fri, 5 Jun 1998 12:22:20 -0400
<br>From:    Larry Horn <laurence.horn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: "...they met cute..."
<br>
<br>At 11:14 AM -0400 6/5/98, Jesse T Sheidlower wrote:
<br>>>
<br>>> "They met cute" is a new phrase for me, but somehow vaguely familiar,
<br>>> in a "we were met on a great battlefield" kind of way.
<br>>>
<br>>> Does anybody know anything about this, or have other examples? Or is
<br>>> this an editing error?
<br>>
<br>>It is not an editing error, it's an established idiom of which
<br>>we have buckets of examples.
<br>>
<br>>I personally find it annoying.
<br>>
<br>I'm morally and aesthetically neutral on it, and I don't know the
<br>constituency of Jesse's collection, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority
<br>of citations I've come across are used (like Grant's) in a cinematic and/or
<br>pop-cultural context.  To say that e.g. Theseus (it WAS Theseus and not
<br>Perseus in the labyrinth, wasn't it?) and Ariadne met cute, would be a bit
<br>of a stretch.  I'm also pretty sure the X and Y in "X and Y met cute" have
<br>to be (at least temporarily) a couple.  It does sound like a Hollywood
<br>flack's expression, whence perhaps Jesse's distaste.
<br>
<br>Larry
<br>