Wed 18 Jun, 2003 02:57 pm - [quote="paleobarbie"]I guess my thinking was that language was oral before it was written and the way the word sounds and its use just seemed similar.[/quote]
Oh absolutely it was. But... (view)
Wed 18 Jun, 2003 02:50 pm - [quote="Sloopy"]About 'sure' for yes - I always assumed it was Irish. Sure and the Irish have long been known for using 'sure' and 'surely' generously and... (view)
Wed 11 Jun, 2003 06:00 pm - [quote="paleobarbie"]
first, I love your list! Very Very helpful.[/quote]
Thank you!
[quote="paleobarbie"]Under "sure" as in an affirmative youstate that it... (view)
Mon 9 Jun, 2003 04:07 am - [quote="Setanta"]I gotta corker for ya . . . my grandmother (born in 1899) once told me that the old timers referred to payday as "the ghost walks." Do you know, or can you... (view)
Sun 1 Jun, 2003 06:17 pm - hit the hay
I do know that in Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast," hammocks are the standard place for sailors to sleep.
Also, would hay really be the chosen substance for... (view)
Sun 1 Jun, 2003 03:41 pm - [quote="Roberta"]I found the naval source for "hit the hay" in a book entitled Common Phrases and Where They Come From by Myron Korach in collaboration with John Mordock.... (view)
Fri 30 May, 2003 03:07 pm - I don't know if it's a false lead or not. But my impression (unscientific) is that sailors' slang is pretty well attested, from novels and stories. Yet the first reference to... (view)
Thu 29 May, 2003 02:31 pm - Try as I do, I can't push this expression back any further than 1900. There are two elements to the phrase.
Part of the problem is "hit" in the sense being used here -- "meet... (view)
Tue 13 May, 2003 02:58 pm - As for "hit the hay," by the way, according to the Dictionary of American Slang, 3rd ed., the first record of it is from 1912. Hay was bedding for animals, and stuffing for crude... (view)
Mon 12 May, 2003 09:26 pm - Yes, it is. But that's the insidious part. It's like that drinking game we used to play where someone came up with an obscure word, and the players tried to write the most convincing --... (view)
