Getting over on DARE

[Wilson Gray]

On Aug 25, 2004, at 12:57 PM, Grant Barrett wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: Getting over on DARE
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> Are you sure that song isn't the sexual/seduction "get over"?

Have you ever heard the song? It seems to me that any reading between
the lines would be up to the individual listener. Different strokes for
different folks. Further deponent sayeth not.

-Wilson Gray

  DARE doesn't have a sub-sense for that, but HDAS does, and cites
Farmer &
> Henley to 1890-93.
>
> Grant Barrett
>
> On Aug 24, 2004, at 17:07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> DARE dates BE "get over" with the meaning "succeed," etc. to 1971.
>> However, its use occurs far earlier than that. And,  for a change, I
>> can supply some documentation. I say "some," because, though I can
>> remember this term from the mid-'Fifies, I can't document it as far
>> back as that.
>>
>> Anyway, the term occurs in the song, "Natural-Born Lover," written and
>> recorded by Fats Domino and released as an "Imperial" recording in
>> 1960. The first stanza is,
>>
>> Well, I done got over.
>> I done got over, at last.
>> I'm a natural-born lover,
>> Since I got rid of all my trouble,
>> Yes, I done got over, at last.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>
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