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Joined: May 2012
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stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 1 |
Hi all,
new to the board, and I have a word origin question that's been bugging me for some time. What is the original / historical meaning of the expression "all get out"?
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
there are several phrases based on the phrasal verb 'to get out (of)'; e.g., as or like (all) get-out, used to indicate a high degree of something
1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 12 We look as elegant and as beautiful as get out.
Mark Twain may have been among the first to add 'all'..
1884 ‘M. Twain’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn xxxviii. 325 We got to dig in like all git-out. [OED]
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554 |
Some folk here in the highlands of Mississippi (of which there are none) understand "get out" to be the diminutive of "all get out". As in: "Get out an extra clean plate; Aunt Gussie's* coming over for supper" or "Get out the cloth tablecloth, the un-chipped China, the matching silverware, and put on your manners; Reverend Jackson's coming for dinner".
And maybe "all get out" trans-mutilated into "get up" as in overdone attire such as a phony cowboy's outfit, but not "git-ty up" which likey means "get up and go, horse".
*My sweet Aunt Gussie always wore too much make-up. She was always "gussied up".
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
trans-mutilated
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Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,554 |
Thanks Jackie for your laugh. We southern folks are blessed with a redeeming sense of self-depreciating humor.
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
usage note:
Of the two combinations self-depreciatory and self-deprecatory the former is, strictly speaking, the better-formed, since it reflects the long-established use of the verb depreciate in the sense ‘disparage, belittle’. The latter combination, however, which reflects the relatively recent use of deprecate in this sense, appears from the evidence to be now somewhat the commoner of the two. [OED online]
self-deprecating - 2.24 million gh self-depreciating - 856,000 gh
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
... the long-established use of the verb depreciate in the sense ‘disparage, belittle’. And currently little used.
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