| Title: | The Joy of Lex |
| Notice: | A Notes File even your grammar could love |
| Moderator: | THEBAY::SYSTEM |
| Created: | Fri Feb 28 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Mon Jun 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1192 |
| Total number of notes: | 42769 |
Can anyone tell me where Smithereens is? Over the years, I've heard about many things that have been described as having been (I'm a real has-been) "smashed" there, or "broken" there, and all sorts of other mayhem-inducing transitives have sent things there.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 350.1 | maybe I should write a book | DEBIT::RANDALL | Bonnie Randall Schutzman | Thu Apr 30 1987 10:03 | 13 |
It's not a place. It's derived from an old Celtic word that means
splinters or bits.
I believe it originally referred to metalsmithing, where it describes
those little pieces of metal that break off things like horseshoes and
brackets while they're being worked. The bits that break off while
the metal is still very hot tend to form roundish blobs about the
size of a pea, while the bits that break off the edges under pressure
from the hammer tend to be long and thin (and sharp!)
--bonnie
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