Re: "On the Cuff"
Posted by ESC on February 22, 2000 In Reply to: "On the Cuff" posted by Bruce
Kahl on February 22, 2000
:
: After I helped my mechanic tidy up his Win98 desktop and created
a few shortcuts, he let me have an oil change "on the cuff", a phrase
I have not heard in a while.
: Anybody? Ms. Joplin??
"On the cuff apparently arose at the turn of the century. Since
bartenders commonly wore starched white cuffs at the time, the theory
that our term for 'on credit' derives from bartenders jotting down
the debts of patrons on their cuffs during the rush of business
is an appealing one. 'On the arm' probably derives from 'on the
cuff,' while 'off the cuff,' unrehearsed or extemporaneous, may
come from impromptu notes early Hollywood directors jotted down
on their cuffs while shooting a difficult scene in a movie. These
ideas, not in the script, were conveyed to the actors when the scene
was reshot." From the "Encylopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by
Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).
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