Middle of the night pondering

[rabidsamfan]

Why is there never only one "cahoot" for us to be in?

Comments

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

well, you can rock ME to sleep tonight!

[lilybaggins.livejournal.com]

Only one person can fit into a "cahoot." Whenever someone is in cahoots with another, there are always at least two people.

Two people are too big to fit into a cahoot. A cahoot is a one-passenger vehicle, so to speak, although there's never just one driver or passenger.

Therefore, multiple cahoots must be brought forth. *nods*

[frodobaggins252.livejournal.com]

Because cahoots are pack animals -- they're never solitary...

and now, from Merriam Webster Online:

cahoot
One entry found for cahoot.
Main Entry: ca·hoot
Pronunciation: k&-'hüt
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps from French cahute cabin, hut
: PARTNERSHIP, LEAGUE -- usually used in plural they're in cahoots

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

It was originally singular. I have no idea why it became plural. Perhaps through the same sort of misunderstanding that turned 'I couldn't care less' to 'I could care less'?

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Lily is of course right to say that a cahoot is a single-passenger vehicle. :D *loves the idea*

Sem's also right -- according to the OED it was originally singular and switched to plural late in the nineteenth century. If I had to hazard a guess as to why, I'd say because to native English speakers "in cahoot" sounds unnatural. Normally in American English, a singular common noun takes an article after a preposition (we say "in a box" or "in a field," even though we omit the article with a proper noun like "in New York.") So it seems likely that at come point the idiom was unconsciously overcorrected to "in cahoots" so it would sound more like the way we treat other common nouns ("in boxes" as opposed to "in a box").

Just a theory; the OED has nothing to say about why it happened, but unconscious overcorrection like that happens a lot to grammatically anomalous idioms.

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I wrote "at come point" rather than "at some point" because obviously I've been spending far, far too much time reading slash. :D

[kimbys-place.livejournal.com]

Why do we park in driveways and drive in parkways? Why do 24 hour convenience stores have locks on the doors? If it's made of beef why is it a hamburger? Why if it goes by car it's a shipment, and if it goes by ship it's cargo?


Oh, right, cahoots. I don't know! ;-)

[slipperieslope.livejournal.com]

LOL

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

Just one more reason why English is the hardest language to learn. God I'm glad I was born in America and learned it as a babe! My greatest admiration to those who must learn it as a second language, and somehow justify in their minds all the examples kimbys_place gives!