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From: Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: What's with ?
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Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:46:28 GMT
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On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:24:59 +0100, Chris Croughton
<chris@keristor.net> said:
> On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:44:31 +0800, Lion <Nospam@com.sg> wrote:
> > Pardon my ignorance. What's the meaning of 'what's
> > with' in this context. When written in full, what do
> > these two words stand for ?
> It's an American colloqialism, an idiom which doesn't
> make much sense literally. "What is the situation
> regarding ..." might be a more full translation of it
> in this case. In some others it's a contraction of
> "What is happening with ...", as in "What's with the
> picnic on Saturday?"
If it didn't start with the "Dead End Kids" movies, it was
almost certainly a prominent feature of their speech.
> So what the poster meant in this case was something like:
> "What is the situation regarding the use of the double
> negative in English?"
> It's an idiom which has, via television and other media,
> made its way into English as well, unfortunately...
It brings to mind a joke that was circulating years ago that
I enjoyed a lot:
A girl is breaking up with her boyfriend, telling him it's
because he's uncouth.
He says, "What?! I take you to museums, operas, and
concerts. I dress okay. What's wid dis 'uncouth' shit?"
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