Reader question:

Please explain “out and out” in this: Any suggestion that she’s taken money from casinos is “an out-and-out lie”.

My comments:

She has not take money from casinos. To say that she has is a complete lie.

“Out and out” is a British slang that means thorough and complete. Most dictionaries say it’s thorough and complete alright but do not explain why. Further investigation, however, leads us to its interesting origin. According to Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (E. Cobham Brewer, 1894), “out and out” grew out of the word utter, or the Anglo-Saxon útaerre in old English.

So, you may just as well remember “out and out” as “utter and utter”. By utter, of course, we mean thorough and complete, as we say utter rubbish, utter fool, utter failure and what an utter waste of time, etc.

Speaking of time, let’s quit quibbling and move swiftly to reading media examples:

1. Fox News Channel contributor Brit Hume weighed in with his thoughts on the major themes of President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address. Hume said that Obama’s speech should “put to rest” the notion spread by some of the president’s supporters that he is a moderate. “He’s an out and out liberal,” Hume said. He went on to predict that Obama’s speech heralds a new era of contentiousness in Washington that some hoped would abate in the president’s second term.

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