Wednesday, August 28, 2002

I want an idiom etymology reference. Most dictionaries tell you the word and the the original language it came from as well as the date it first came into usage. Recently, I've been reading Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (Well, actually Adams is reading it to me via the iPod and Audible.com). There's a scene where one eccentric character says he has a horse in his bathroom and the more sane character of the two goes to have a look. Adams describes the entire bathroom down to the most minute detail, and the reader is agonizing over whether the horse is there or not. Nice effect. He did all he could to dance around the fact that there was a "horse in the bathroom." A similar phrase, "ignoring the elephant in the living room" is in wide usage. A Google search yields a trunkload of AA material and various treatise on denial. Who came up with this phrase? Where did it originate? I must know! Like I said, I need an idiom dictionary. 10:32:54 PM    comment []

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