Thursday, February 28, 2008

Freudian Language School

I heard a woman say the other day that in her recent career she felt that she had been "pigeon-held".

Isn't that a great expression?

It obviously starts with "pigeon-hole" and then the past tense, "pigeon-holed", but then you swap "holed" for the homophone "hold", as in holding onto something or holding something back, and then do the past tense again and you get "pigeon-held".

It conveys both the sense of being unfairly stereotyped and of being unfairly constrained or restrained.

Isn't that great?

1 comment:

Sally said...

G'day Ellen - thanks for visiting Sydney. The Chicago Art Institute is high on my list of places I REALLY want to go. I have been to Osseo and Pigeon Falls, Wisconsin though (and many other places besides - friends in Eau Claire), so haven't entirely missed out!