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re: Language: the Etymology of "One Sharp Cookie" (Randy Black, US) (John Eipper, USA, 06/11/09 8:09 am)

Randy Black writes: In response to WAIS editor-in-chief John Eipper's post, Deborah Dupire-Nelson commented in her 10 June post that she was having a tough time of it finding a definition of one sharp cookie and its origin. It's my impression that calling anyone sharp is a compliment and that the cookie part of it goes back to the days when we referred to others as cookie, toots, babe, and other diminutive, affectionate terms. In short, being one sharp, or smart cookie is very high praise. One can also be one tough cookie. In any event, the idiomatic expression means: One who is intelligent, bright, or sharp; especially, one who can identify attempts to deceive or mislead. I found a wealth of opinions on the Web as it seems that other blogs have participants who have a similar curiosity. For instance, on the forum for WordReference.com, I found this one: bonsoir, quelqu'un pourrait-il me traduire en français cette expression Sharp cookie Merci de votre aide and C'est quelqu'un d'intelligent. Il n'y a pas grand chose qui lui echappe. On peut dire tout simplement "sharp" ... "That's one sharp guy" Pareillement on peut dire "smart cookie"... "Wow! You did so well on your test. You're such a smart cookie" À mon avis, ajoutant le mot "cookie" rend familière la phrase ... on le dit affectueusement à quelqu'un qu'on aime, et souvent à un enfant. Source: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=343804 ">www.allwords.com http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=343804 JE comments: Could we say "un biscuit aigu"? Merci, Mr. Le Noir! -- For information about the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), and its online publication, the World Affairs Report, read its homepage by simply double-clicking on: http://wais.stanford.edu/ John Eipper, Editor-in-Chief, Adrian College, MI 49221 USA

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