"pip-squeak"?
DJ Kim
I heard it on Ally Mcbeal, and could not make an educated guess, other
than it has to do with the short stature of John Cage, from the
context.
BTW, as legal dramas go, does Judging Amy, which just started to air
here in Korea, portray a more accurate picture of the legal community
and employ a better usage of legal terms?
Thanks in advance.
Robert Lieblich
>
> what does "pip-squeak" mean?
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=pip-squeak
http://www.bartleby.com/61/59/P0325900.html
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=pipsqueak*1+0
> BTW, as legal dramas go, does Judging Amy, which just started to air
> here in Korea, portray a more accurate picture of the legal community
> and employ a better usage of legal terms?
Ally McBeal is a near fantasy when it comes to legal matters.
Judging Amy is a fair approximation of what actually goes on,
although exaggerated for dramatic reasons. In general, the language
in Ally McBeal is more informal and slangy than the language in
Judging Amy, and this is true also of their usage of legal terms. I
wouldn't say that Ally McBeal misuses legal language, exactly; it's
more that the legal language is applied to the outrageous cases they
get involved in and distorts the entire picture of the legal
process.
ObAUE: Didn't WWII firmly establish the proununciation of "Ally"
(if there was ever any doubt), and shouldn't the name of the TV show
be spelled "Allie McBeal"?
Richard Fontana
> what does "pip-squeak" mean?
It is in the online M-W dictionary, and should be in any reasonably print
dictionary.
> BTW, as legal dramas go, does Judging Amy, which just started to air
> here in Korea, portray a more accurate picture of the legal community
> and employ a better usage of legal terms?
Yes, _Ally McBeal_ is a step above _Night Court_ in its legal realism (not
Legal Realism). However, _Judging Amy_ focuses pretty exclusively on the
family court system.
Richard Fontana
> On 2 Jun 2001, DJ Kim wrote:
>
> > what does "pip-squeak" mean?
>
> It is in the online M-W dictionary, and should be in any reasonably print
> dictionary.
Reasonable, or reasonably sized, that is.
Spehro Pefhany
> what does "pip-squeak" mean?
Consider also the sentiment from the Treaty of Versailles, to squeeze
the German lemon "until the pips squeak".
Best regards,
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Charles Riggs
>what does "pip-squeak" mean?
It means the writer is using an unnecessary hyphen in the word
pipsqueak which means a diminutive person.
Charles Riggs
jan sand
There is, also, I think, not only the implication of small size, but
mental insignificance.
Jan Sand
Spehro Pefhany
> There is, also, I think, not only the implication of small size, but
> mental insignificance.
Or a lack of power or even a low level of some kind of skill. It's
insignificance of some kind, in comparison to a standard.
N.Mitchum
-----
> the German lemon "until the pips squeak".
Surely you're not saying anything like this is expressed in the
treaty itself? Sounds more like a remark made outside the
negotiations.
----NM
Frances Kemmish
>
> The renowned jan sand <jan...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > There is, also, I think, not only the implication of small size, but
> > mental insignificance.
>
> Or a lack of power or even a low level of some kind of skill. It's
> insignificance of some kind, in comparison to a standard.
>
I just watched a film in which one of the characters called another
a "tupp'ny-ha'penny cockney pipsqueak". I assume the scriptwriter
must be a subscriber to aue.
Fran
Spehro Pefhany
> Surely you're not saying anything like this is expressed in the
> treaty itself? Sounds more like a remark made outside the
> negotiations.
Yes, a sentiment infamously expressed at the time of the Treaty
negotiations, implemented within the Treaty and blamed for the eventual
outbreak of WWII.
Don Aitken
There was a famous British comic strip, before my time, called "Pip,
Squeak and Wilfred", with three characters of those names.
--
Don Aitken