Timeline for What phrase would American English speakers use in place of "Tom, Dick and Harry"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 27, 2022 at 18:30 | comment | added | Barmar | @MarkFoskey If you say "everyone and his brother does it" then you're saying it's popular. If you say "everyone and his brother can do it" then you're saying it's easy. | |
| May 27, 2022 at 17:59 | comment | added | Mark Foskey | But "everyone and his brother" is not really a good answer to the question anyway. It wasn't used to suggest that something was so easy anyone could do it. Rather, it was used to indicate that something was really popular so that everyone was doing it. Not just everyone, in fact, but everyone and also his brother. The sexist part is that it sort of assumes that the default person is a guy. | |
| May 27, 2022 at 15:59 | comment | added | Barmar | @MarkFoskey Which is interesting because "and his XXX" is not particularly complimentary to the XXX, they're being used as an example of someone with little expertise. So we should be more inclusive when hurling insults, too. | |
| May 27, 2022 at 15:55 | comment | added | Mark Foskey | @BrianMcCutchon Historically, there was one canonical form "everyone and his brother." I think in this ngrams graph you can see the effect of increasing sensitivity to gender-noninclusive speech: books.google.com/ngrams/… | |
| May 26, 2022 at 22:50 | comment | added | Karl Knechtel | The nuance here is a little different, I think. "Everyone and ..." phrases are more commonly used to talk about what is popular or fashionable. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 21:17 | comment | added | Barmar | @gotube I think they both have the same meaning when the rest of the sentence is "can solve this problem". No one would think that you mean that this means everyone is working together to solve the problem. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 21:04 | comment | added | gotube♦ | @Barmar "Everyone and their brother" can replace "Every Tom, Dick and Harry", but it cannot replace "Any Tom, Dick or Harry", as in the OP | |
| May 25, 2022 at 19:22 | comment | added | Barmar | @Aganju I guess it depends on which relatives people think are the least clever :) | |
| May 25, 2022 at 19:19 | comment | added | Barmar | @gotube Not in the sentence in the OP. It's basically the difference between using "anyone" or "everyone", but in contexts like this they're equivalent. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 19:18 | comment | added | Aganju | I only ever heard 'anybody and their aunt'. Interesting variations! | |
| May 25, 2022 at 18:43 | comment | added | gotube♦ | "Everyone and their dog" means lots of people. "Any Tom, Dick or Harry" refers to only one arbitrary person. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 15:15 | comment | added | fdomn-m | Also frequently "and their..." changed to whatever seems most ludicrous/made up at the time, eg "everyone and their granny" | |
| May 25, 2022 at 15:11 | comment | added | Barmar | @BrianMcCutchon I don't think I've heard "mom", but I've heard "dog". I've added to the answer. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 15:11 | history | edited | Barmar | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 486 characters in body
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| May 25, 2022 at 15:06 | comment | added | Brian McCutchon | I'm not sure I've heard this one, but I've heard "everyone and their mom" and "everyone and their dog." It looks like that last one may be the most common: books.google.com/ngrams/… | |
| May 25, 2022 at 15:03 | comment | added | Jeff Zeitlin | Or "anybody and their dog". Or "any Joe". Or several other variations on the theme. | |
| May 25, 2022 at 14:49 | history | answered | Barmar | CC BY-SA 4.0 |