"Keep a civil tongue" is a phrase you don't hear much today. Many boys wouldn't have a clue as to what it means.
Having years of experience dealing with incivil boys, clinical psychologist
Adam Cox says the rise in incivility can be attriubted to a "formidable nemesis": boredom.
Comments:
I heard the civil tongue bit in conjunction to someone being a smart aleck or rude.
Take away that purpose and it gets filled w/ entertainment. I believe it is Colson who has frequently referred to the book "Entertaining Ourselves to Death."
However, when you write, ""Keep a civil tongue" is a phrase you don't hear much today. Many boys wouldn't have a clue as to what it means."
I bristle. What that means can vary widely. And it _is_ often used to escape hard truths, not because they're uncivil, but because they're hard.