Date:    Thu, 23 Apr 1998 10:57:27 -0400
<br>From:    Larry Horn <laurence.horn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALE.EDU>
<br>Subject: banshee workers
<br>
<br>One of my undergraduate students chose to critique an entry from an old
<br>(1984) William Safire book, _I Stand Corrected_, that was prompted by an
<br>assurance from Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell that he and his
<br>colleagues were "working like banshees to get all the material we can".
<br>Safire and some of his respondents assumed that this was a malapropism for
<br>"working like beavers", since banshees are, to quote of them (the readers,
<br>not the banshees), "female spirits who keen, or wail, in Gaelic folklore to
<br>announce the impending death of someone", and not otherwise known to be
<br>particularly industrious.  Another reader suggested an influence from the
<br>presumably taboo "working like coolies", which would have the right meaning
<br>and at least the right final vowel (unlike "beavers").  But it appears that
<br>this was not necessarily a nonce usage by the Senator, since another reader
<br>wrote in from New Jersey to say that her husband used the same expression.
<br>Nexis shows various uses involving dancing, whooping, screaming, howling,
<br>fighting, shopping, and even boffing like banshees, but none with working.
<br>Anyone else familiar with this variant?
<br>
<br>Larry
<br>