“Groundhog day” phrase

[Anonymous]

Settle a dispute, DCUM.

Did the phrase “Groundhog Day,” meaning doing something mundane over and over again, originate following the Bill Murray film of the same name? Or was it around well before that, based on the silliness of the day itself.

DH swears he grew up with this phrase in the Midwest well before 1993.

[Anonymous]

The phrase predates the movie by decades.

The movie was inspired by the phrase and rodent.

[Anonymous]

This is a great question. Every Internet source I just looked up says it all stems from the movie. I was not able to find any evidence that it was used that way before the movie.

[Anonymous]

Phrase predates the movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The phrase predates the movie by decades.

The movie was inspired by the phrase and rodent.

Source? (obviously the movie was inspired by the rodent, but what is the origin of the phrase)

[Anonymous]

It doesn't seem logical that the phrase-- with that meaning-- came before the movie. I certainly never heard anyone use it that way before 1993.

I mean, yes, Punxsutawney Phil/Phyllis I guess... comes out every year and... either sees their shadow or doesn't... but that's not "doing the same mundane thing day after day." Which is what the (rather brilliant IMO) movie is about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question. Every Internet source I just looked up says it all stems from the movie. I was not able to find any evidence that it was used that way before the movie.

You must be using the Dumb Google.
Because I just googled, "groundhog day meaning". The first two results were 1. Definition from dictionary and 2. Wikipedia. They both refer to an old tradition that precedes the movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't seem logical that the phrase-- with that meaning-- came before the movie. I certainly never heard anyone use it that way before 1993.

I mean, yes, Punxsutawney Phil/Phyllis I guess... comes out every year and... either sees their shadow or doesn't... but that's not "doing the same mundane thing day after day." Which is what the (rather brilliant IMO) movie is about.

Actually, let me correct the OP and myself-- it's not exactly doing "the same mundane thing day after day" IMO. It doesn't have to be mundane-- it's more of an inescapable cycle of the EXACT same things no matter what you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question. Every Internet source I just looked up says it all stems from the movie. I was not able to find any evidence that it was used that way before the movie.

You must be using the Dumb Google.
Because I just googled, "groundhog day meaning". The first two results were 1. Definition from dictionary and 2. Wikipedia. They both refer to an old tradition that precedes the movie.

DP.

Have you ever heard the acronym "GIGO?"

You should look it up on your smart Google.

The OP didn't ask if the phrase existed at all before 1993, but whether the phrase *with the meaning that matches the plot of the movie* existed before the movie.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea about the phrase, but that movie is so good and stands up to repeated viewings (is that ironic?). By the end I want to live there too.

[Anonymous]

Obviously the tradition predates the movie but I never heard it used that way prior to the movie. And I lived in three different regions of the country. Not the midwest though so maybe it was a midwest thing!

[Anonymous]

If you need a new phrase then Trekkies use “temporal causality loop” from the Star Trek Next Generation episode Cause and Effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea about the phrase, but that movie is so good and stands up to repeated viewings (is that ironic?). By the end I want to live there too.

+1 I can’t stand Andie MacDowell and I still love it.

[Anonymous]

Groundhog day existed, but the mundane time loop aspect of it comes from the movie. Had the writers chosen some other mundane celebration to be the event the reporter was angry to be covering that day and then on repeat loop thereafter, say Frozen Dead Guy Day in Nederland, Colorado, the title and the phrase would be different. We could be saying, "ugh, this quarantine is like Frozen Dead Guy Day" (but that would be super awkward in this context).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question. Every Internet source I just looked up says it all stems from the movie. I was not able to find any evidence that it was used that way before the movie.

You must be using the Dumb Google.
Because I just googled, "groundhog day meaning". The first two results were 1. Definition from dictionary and 2. Wikipedia. They both refer to an old tradition that precedes the movie.

DP.

Have you ever heard the acronym "GIGO?"

You should look it up on your smart Google.

The OP didn't ask if the phrase existed at all before 1993, but whether the phrase *with the meaning that matches the plot of the movie* existed before the movie.

You may need to work on reading comprehension. I was referring to deductive reasoning, where you take information from two or more sources (from google) and draw a logically sound conclusion.

Have you heard of the phrase, do not believe in everything you read online?