Cutting Remarks
Here's The Hollywood Reporter quoting Modern Family producer Steve Levitan on TV viewership:
It’s not as cut and dry as they’re (Disney-ABC) trying to build a business on Hulu off of our show, without us getting the upside of that. I don’t feel that’s the case that much anymore.
I don't know know if Levitan said it, or the Reporter heard it, but "cut and dry"? Apparently this is acceptable, but isn't "cut and dried" preferred? Shouldn't it be?
The phase is centuries old. Apparently it's about people cutting something (flowers, herbs, wood, beef--it's not entirely clear) and putting it out to dry. Afterwards, you had something set, something that wasn't going to change, thus the expression. "Cut and dried" gets this across--it's happened, it's settled. "Cut and dry" sounds like the process, not the result.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:17 AM
2 Comments:
I always thought "cut and dried" implied some level of simplicity as well. Maybe that comes from the concept that once something has been "cut and dried" its been settled and there is nothing left to argue over- its a simple fait accompli and nothing left to be discussed.
The lost "ed" is just modern sloppiness and the fact that the phrase has little or no real meaning to most so no one is really thinking what the words originally meant(I'm guessing most people don't cut and dry things the way they used to back in the golden age of cutting and drying). It as if there is word that sounds like "cuttendri(de)" which mean done with to most people
Yes, the phrase also means something simple or unexceptional. And when use generally comes with a negative connotation.
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