I've got a TL for you

Posted by R. Berg on August 16, 2008 at 16:46

In Reply to: I've got a TL for you posted by Barbara Makature on August 16, 2008 at 15:59:

: : : : My 84-year-old aunt says "I've got a TL for you", meaning she's going to say something nice about you or give you a compliment. Has anyone else heard this? I'd love to know (and so would my aunt) how it came about.

: **I found an answer myself and want to sharetrade-last (trdlst)
: n. Informal
: A favorable remark that one has overheard about another person and offers to repeat to that person in exchange for a compliment overheard about oneself.
: -or-
: trade-last - a compliment that I heard about you that I offer to trade for a compliment you have heard about me

: I found references to use of the phrase in the old Fibber McGee and Molly radio program and also in the movie "Road to Morocco" with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

In _The Joys of Yiddish_, Leo Rosten says F. Scott Fitzgerald used "trade-last" in _This Side of Paradise_. It isn't a Yiddish expression. Rosten mentions it to prevent confusion with another "T.L.," which IS a Yiddish-American expression and a vulgar one, meaning brown-noser. ~rb