metal » medal

Chiefly in:   pedal to the medal

Classification: English – /t/-flapping – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Yet it’s so pedal-to-the-medal for most of its runtime that it’s hard not to get caught up in the swirling adrenaline. (UCLA Daily Bruin, Nov. 1, 1996)
  • Pedal to the medal, 90 mph, “I can’t hold her together much longer, captain” bluegrass. (Univ. of Mississippi Daily Mississippian, Mar. 24, 2000)
  • Mr. Russert, I was so upset by the things my wife said, I put the pedal to the medal and one of these police officers came up behind me with the flashing light and said, ‘you’re going 40 in a 25 I want to see your license and registration.’ (American University commencement address, Tim Russert, May 8, 2005)

Since the expression (put the) pedal to the metal already rhymes, why not make the spelling align as well? The semantic slippage between metal and medal has already been noted working in the other direction (see medal » metal).

| link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

Commentaries

  1. 1

    Commentary by codeman38 , 2005/07/28 at 5:56 pm

    This alignment happens in the opposite direction, too: petal to the metal

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