Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I get the water at my house from a well. Although it is not as deep as the one at church or in community about a mile from my house. So they are literally deep holes in the ground.

So, since the statements are blatantly true and could have been independently generated in many places and times, what exactly is your question?

Emmett

BTW, the OED has 'well' as two nouns, two verbs, an adjective, and an adverb.

I think you ask questions which may well be impossible to answer. The phrases are word-play (or puns) where-in the speaker is substituting a noun form of 'well' after someone has (maybe too often) used the adverb form. I doubt the first occurrence has been recorded anywhere, but you are welcome to look.

(Four to five years of intermitent internet and library searching (150 years later) pushed the first recorded use of "sound on the goose question" back less than two months and found its likely origin from about a year before.)

Good luck on your quest.

Emmett