Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 22:20:02 -0400 From: Ron Butters Subject: Re: Etymologizing >Mark Mandel asks whether >`anyone ever tried to explain >this general phenomenon' (of >preferring fanciful etymologies >to factual ones). It has always seemed to me that this must be a part of the same impulse that leads children to try to figure out meaning connections and leads to such howlers as TAKE IT FOR GRANITE and GLADLY THE CROSS-EYED BEAR. Haven't we all been taught that linguistic creativity is mired into our brains?