Friday, March 14, 2008

Neither can I

In a recent LL post Geoffrey Pullum says "But I can't make head or tail of it."

I've only heard the plurals in that idiom: "heads or tails". Is Pullum playing with the idiom or is that how he's always heard/used it? Is that an earlier form of the idiom? Is it a typo or is it a purposeful reminder of the original?

So I do a quick Google™ search.

"make head or tail of it" -- 23,500 hits
"make heads of tails of it" -- 33,200 hits

Of course this doesn't answer any of my questions. It was just surprising to see how close they are in hits. I expected the ratio would favor the plurals by a lot more.

And there was another result that didn't clarify any of my questions. The first result for "heads or tails": this LL post -- also by Pullum.

offered up by Wishydig at 19:07 Labels:

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 March, 2008 19:47

    Other variants:

    "Heads nor tails of it" = 4,800 hits

    "Head nor tail of it" = 11,600

    Seriously, what the hell is going on there? Separated by a Common Language has a post addressing the plurals, and there's some talk in the comments about the "nor" variants.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Ridger, FCD14 March, 2008 23:34

    Is the singular more British? Is Pullum reverting now that he's back in the UK? ;-)

    I would have thought the plural to be much more common, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. lynneguist15 March, 2008 09:32

    Yes, it's a BrE/AmE difference--discussed back here:

    http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/07/making-heads-or-tails.html

    Also did 'Neither/nor':

    http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/02/me-neither-nor-do-i.html

    tata!
    L

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wishydig15 March, 2008 13:12

    Ah so perhaps it is a reacculturation.

    or whatever word works there.

    Thanks Lynne

    ReplyDelete
  5. lynneguist15 March, 2008 17:42

    I see that Blogger truncated the URLs.

    The making head(s)/tail(s) post is here, and the Neither/nor do I post is here.

    ReplyDelete

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