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Mon 24 Dec, 2012 02:25 pm
My friend from Manchester (UK) has been in the US for about 5 years and when he was over here staying with us I noticed he kept using a phrase which (I thought) was fairly mainstream in N America but fairly rare in RightPondia - "quite the [something]". How old is this thing?
Lately it seems to have seeped over the Atlantic... my first quote is from the London Daily Mail but then you'd expect that. The rest are of US provenance. Is it a comparatively recent thing? I must say I find it quite the irritation.
Sandra Bullock's little man is quite the joker as he plays with his bodyguard at Disneyland
Hi! My name is Marcus and I'm an 18 month old Rottweiler. I can be quite the ham
The girl [Rebel Wilson] can do more than eat a deep-throated candy bar. Although that is quite the skillset
As a long-time Bears fan, this is quite the dilemma
'Holy Motors' review: Clever French director is quite the mechanic
landing Andersen is quite the coup for the Wisconsin AD
San Jose State will get their 11th win for the season, which is quite the accomplishment with Mike MacIntyre now departed as the team's coach
She [Kim Kardashian] is quite the actor. Based on the trailer, she’s really close to mastering the difference between statements and questions, and she has that dead-eye stare that directors crave.
@contrex,
Drinking too much
spiced eggnog today Sir Contrex?
@contrex,
I've always thought "quite the" was an affectation of British origin. I remember it from old Georgette Heyers that I read as a teenager.
I found this reference in wikipedia
Quote:c1780 Sc. Song (see N. & Q. 8th Ser. IV. 81), I've heard my granny crack O' sixty twa years back When there were sic a stock of Dandies O; Oh they gaed to Kirk and Fair, Wi' their ribbons round their hair, And their stumpie drugget coats, quite the Dandy O."
when I searched further I found the same piece with a 1788 reference
http://archive.org/stream/newenglishdictio03murruoft/newenglishdictio03murruoft_djvu.txt
Quote:And their stumpie drugget
coats, quite the Dandy O. 1788 R. GALLOWAY Poems i Jam.),
@contrex,
Con I'm not sure just how "recent" but it's a
very common expression and I'd guess I've heard it repeatedly some seven decades at least
@ehBeth,
this thread could be quite the faux pas
@ehBeth,
Exactly what I would have guessed, ehBeth. I've always assumed the expression was originally British and has been around for ages. I seem to recall somewhere back in the dimness of my mind seeing the expression in old Agatha Christie murder mysteries dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. Wonder where Contrex got the notion the expression was 'Murrican. You don't hear it much over here.
@Lustig Andrei,
and yet many Canadians use it (at least in my circle of acquaintances), so the British origin makes more sense again
I know it's popular in Canada and in Ireland. I spent my childhood being called 'quite the devil" or that I'd created 'quite the hullabaloo'.
@ehBeth,
I agree...I thought it was a British saying.
I have always used it.
"it's not quite the thing, old man."
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