Date:  Tue, 8 Mar 1994 12:20:30 -0500

From:  Robert Kelly <kelly[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]LEVY.BARD.EDU>

Subject: Re: Adam's off ox



I know the phrase only from bluegrass Kentucky friends, who use it (as Larry

Horn describes) the way New Yorkers (at least the ones I grew up with) would

say Adam's house-cat. The house-cat form seems "normal" to me, the off-ox

a dialect improvement---we can't forget that people take pleasure in speech

and coining phrases, though linguists used to take nonce-inventions with

solemn unsuspiciousness, I think. Still, I think both house-cat and

off-ox are really "improvements" on plain "...from Adam." I don't think

they express even greater unfamiliarity.



RK