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Chris -- 2025-05-10
“Guff”, meaning either “nonsense” or “insolent backtalk” is not a very common English word but shows up in a few specific idiomatic phrases. I see “Gruff”, which can mean brusque or surly, substituted in its place, even though it’s an adjective rather than a noun. I would guess the speaker or writer would assume that “gruff” in this case is rough talk or rough treatment.
She’s an independent, take no-gruff, hard-working and hard- partying country woman!
In the case of “giving me gruff” there may be additional confusion with “giving me grief”
Last edited by fpberger (2013-08-15 13:59:37)
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Wildly common. I’m fairly certain I’ve heard this one before. Good find.
“Fairly certain” may sound like a cavil, but it can’t hold a candle to an expression I recorded earlier this summer. My interlocutor uttered the adverbial string “pretty much always for the most part.” Blew all the fuses in my parsing circuits.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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