Dental Pickings

Arthur Quinn in Figures of Speech: 60 ways to turn a phrase in the section on metonymy provides a Biblical example

And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places

Amos 4:6

I was a bit puzzled by this until the next page where Quin explains "Sometimes the substitutions are not immediately clear. When in the above passage Amos prophesies that God in His wrath is going to give the Hebrews clean teeth, we know this has nothing to do with dental hygiene. But it is is only on reflection that we realize that you don't have to brush your teeth if you don't eat."

Go figure.


And so for day 622
26.08.2008