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I just told someone that something got on my quince. Then being me I went off and looked up 'quince' to see if it would tell me why this peculiar expression exists. Of course it didn't help.
Synonyms: it gets on my wick, it gets on my goat, it gets my goat up, and the prosaic it gets on my nerves.
Does anyone else use the quince, wick, or goat forms, or have any idea what they refer to?
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old hand
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old hand
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I've heard/used "That really gets my goat." Never thought about it before...
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Carpal Tunnel
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get someone's goat
Annoy or anger someone, as in By teasing me about that article I wrote, he's trying to get my goat, but I won't let him. The origin of this expression is disputed. H.L. Mencken held it came from using a goat as a calming influence in a racehorse's stall and removing it just before the race, thereby making the horse nervous. However, there is no firm evidence for this.
origin. [c. 1900]
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I use both "it gets my goat" and "it gets on my wick". I imagine that the "wick" part would be related to short fuses and tempers. At least, that's the only explanation I can come up with!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, ditto, CK. And in extremis I even have been known to growl darkly that something "really gets on my tits" 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quince is membrillo in Spanish. "Cómo me saca de honda" would be a comparable phrase. Another is "Cómo friega"
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enthusiast
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And it gets up my nose.
Bodily imagery I can understand. On my nerves - up my nose - on my tits.
Fractious animal imagery I can understand, though at some remove. It gets on my goat, it gets my gander up??
But the quince, that hedonic fruit, is the most inoffensive possible bearer of this meaning, and I find it quite puzzling. I got this from my parents, one or both of whom say it, and some of their more peculiar expressions turn out to be atavistic Scottish or North Country relics. But I can't say for sure I've ever heard the 'quince' one outside my family.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I knew an ancient teacher who used to stroll the school halls like a Spanish galleon. When she had had too much from particular students, she would say, "You have plucked my last nerve!"
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Carpal Tunnel
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I wonder if there is any connection with it give me the pip? yeah, I know ICLIU but a man's gotta sleep sometime 
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I got this from my parents, one or both of whom say it, and some of their more peculiar expressions turn out to be atavistic Scottish or North Country relics. But I can't say for sure I've ever heard the 'quince' one outside my family.
Nicholas, I can tell you that it's given as Ozzie slang by OED2 -- I wonder if stales has seen this thread. I'm going to paste in what's there first:
b. Phr. to get on (a person's) quince, to irritate or exasperate. Austral. slang.
1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 58 Get on one's quince, to annoy or aggravate deeply. 1948 Sydney Morning Herald 3 July 9/1 Aw, can it boss! You're gettin' on me quince. 1963 A. E. Farrell Vengeance ii. 19 These bloody trees are getting on me quince! 1974 D. O'Grady Deschooling Kevin Carew 95 In an unguarded moment, he told Bill Moynihan ‘This joint is getting on my quince.’
now, there is another 'quince', which is a variant of 'quinch', which is an obs. variant of 'quitch', all of which are related to wince and flinch, all of which may relate to frayed nerves. I'm not sayin'... I'm just sayin'.
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