When you quit something abruptly, you’re said to quit cold turkey. This expression’s origin is unknown although its earliest recording uses are from 19th-century boxing. This is part of a complete episode.
Leave a comment
1 comment
More from this show
When you’re talking about the location of an inanimate object, is it okay to say that it lives there, as in The peanut butter lives in that cabinet or The flashlight lives on that shelf? Strictly speaking, of course, that object isn’t...
Sean in Oneonta, New York, says that when he was growing up in New Jersey, his family would pile in the car and set off on a surprise adventure, whether a short distance or long, and the kids would be told only that they were going on Buxtehude...
I just ran across a use of cold turkey in a 1929 ‘Radio Retailing’ magazine. Clearly means cold calling. If the drug-related use had also been common at the time, I doubt that a magazine would have used the phrase.
Dealers should not forget — particularly at the outset of their efforts — that cold turkey work is not synonymous with doorbell pounding. While the personal, outside canvass is undoubtedly the most thorough of all soliciting media, the telephone runs it a close and effective second.