Chrysti The Wordsmith: Out to Lunch

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. We American English speakers should be careful how we use the expression out to lunch in one context the phrase simply means that someone has gone to eat his midday meal. But in other contexts the expression can be quite defamatory in certain situational frameworks. Saying that someone is out to lunch is to imply that he's perhaps a daydreaming or inattentive be socially inept C lacking good judgment or D mentally unstable. The phrase Out to Lunch is quite young in etymological years according to the Oxford English Dictionary it first appeared in print in one thousand fifty five. Although it was probably in verbal circulation for some years prior to that its initial citation comes from of all things the Science Digest of August one thousand fifty five. And here is what that publication said quote out to lunch refers to someone who just isn't there. And he's told immediately to get with it. American lexicographers Stewart bird Flexner and

Harold Wentworth who published the landmark Dictionary of American Slang in 1060 defined out to lunch this way. Unable to qualify socially stupid jocular imputation of brainlessness the expression was invented by some clever American wordsmith or wordsmiths who aim to linguistically compare the physical absence of someone on a lunch break with the mental absence of a daydreamer or simpleton. I'm Christi the wordsmith. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.