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#1 2007-07-31 20:24:44

jorkel
Eggcornista
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 1456

Smack DAD in the middle

One really has to wonder what “smack dab (in the middle)” really means. It would be just so much easier to smack dad in the middle …since he probably has a pot belly anyway. 39 raw Google hits.

The Evening Class: DEAD CHANNELS—<em>Sleazy Sundays</em> in April!Sharon, you’re smack dad in the middle of Idaho right now. You’re confused. You can’t see straight. Heh. 7:50 AM. Post a Comment …
theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/03/dead-channels-sleazy-sundays-in-april.html – 20k – Cached – Similar pages

2006 » July » The Deep RoughSomehow the ball found it’s way over the bunker, through the trees, and smack dad in the middle of the fairway. A fairway wood next, put me about 40 yards …
www.deeprough.com/index.php/2006/07/ – 44k – Cached – Similar pages

any dr650 motards in the crowed? – ThumperTalkhey dr6fifty, i am right smack dad in the middle of baltimore and whashington, my 650 will basicly never see the dirt again, might shooting me a PM with …
www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5067129 – 93k – Cached – Similar pages

Arizona: The State of Hockey? (Pt. 3) | INSIDE HOCKEY“We’re smack dad in the middle as far as attendance goes in the ECHL,” Weiss says. “Our goal is to get as much as 4000-5000 a night, so we’re knocking on …
www.insidehockey.com/columns/526 – 24k – Cached – Similar pages

Nkorho Wateringhole chat Monday 30 July 2007 | AfricamDreamer. Dreamer, I don’t mind at all. I am in the Orlando area. Just about smack dad in the middle of the state. Blessings, Auntie Lyn …
www.africam.com/wildlife/nkorho_waterin … _july_2007 – 68k – Jul 29, 2007 – Cached – Similar pages

Doing her own ‘Things’... another a woven tube of some kind-usually placed smack-dad in the middle of the field but sometimes entering the view space from one side. ...
www.kcaf.or.kr/art500/leejungjin/erev6_1.htm – 5k – Cached – Similar pages

/mark [mark husson]Its like 4 or 5 inches across and its smack dad in the middle! What the hell is going on? Did I fall on my head and not notice it in the weeks it would have …
michaelhusson.com/mark/archives/2003_12_01_archive.htm – 82k – Cached – Similar pages

Last edited by jorkel (2007-07-31 20:27:15)

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#2 2014-01-19 11:23:51

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

I like this one. The dab in ‘smack dab’ means “sharply, with a dab, by sudden contact.” The dad in ‘smack-dad’ might be interpreted as a euphemistic intensifier, as in dad gummit. Also out there is slap-dad which harks back to the original slap-dab.

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#3 2014-01-19 13:01:29

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

“Smack dab” and “slapdash” have different meanings. The first means precisely/exactly, the second hurriedly/carelessly. Right?

What, then, is the meaning of the combo “slapdab/slap-dab?” The OED and MW say that it is a synonym for “smack dab,” with the OED citing it as a NA colloquialism. But searches for a slabdab and a slab dab on Google turn up examples that are almost exclusively synonymous with “slapdash.”

Last edited by kem (2014-01-19 13:04:31)


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#4 2014-01-19 13:16:11

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

And while we are on the topic of innovations, what’s going on with the plentiful “dab gummit?” The standard “dad gummit” I get: it’s a euphemistic transposition of “god dammit.” (though, technically, it should have been “dad gommit” —perhaps “gum up” exercises some effect?).


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#5 2014-01-19 15:41:43

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

“A slap-dab effort” is clearly a blend. Slap-dab and smack-dab arose together before smack won out. You may be on to something: both slap-dab and then smack-dab arose at the height of slapdashery.

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#6 2014-01-20 07:25:41

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

kem wrote:

The standard “dad gummit” I get: it’s a euphemistic transposition of “god dammit.” (though, technically, it should have been “dad gommit” —perhaps “gum up” exercises some effect?).

I’d assumed there was some influence from a paternalistic view of Deity: God the Father and all that. (What was the old joke about the two kids walking home from Sunday school, and one asks the other what he thinks about all this stuff they’re feeding them about there being a Devil? The other answers, “It’s probably just like Santa Claus: in the end it turns out it’s just your dad.”)
.
If Dad = Father is involved there somewhere, that’s eggcornish, but (probably) consciously, euphemistically so, which is pretty far from the standard eggcorn scenario. I mean, if anybody’s saying it (as I have), thinking “Dad” but quite aware that this is a “minced oath” to avoid overtly swearing by God, that is not an eggcorn.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2014-01-20 14:44:39)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#7 2014-01-20 07:30:10

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

It’s probably somewhat irrelevant here, but I’ve been fascinated by the word spang , which for me is a synonym of smack dab . Why do both these have so exactly the right sound for the meaning? (Or maybe they don’t for the rest of you.)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#8 2014-01-20 08:34:12

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2851

Re: Smack DAD in the middle

I’ve been fascinated by the word spang

Wow. There’s a word I haven’t heard since childhood (and not often then).

I suppose most of the web examples of spanging new, if not simple misspellings, must be substitutions (with a possible semantic draw) for “spanking new.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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