"consarn your tripes"; "says you"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Sun Jun 24 19:45:47 UTC 2007


Sranza 6 of an 1863 composition, "The Battles of July '63," by J. Worrell & John Parry [http://www.pdmusic.org/civilwar2/63tbojst.txt]:

  Then hurrah for the Stars and hurrah for the Stripes,
And down with Jeff Davis consarn his old tripes,
For two Sebastopols and one Waterloo,
Is pretty fair work in a fortnight, says you.

  "Consarn your tripes!" appears to have been a medium-strength imprecation, perhaps old-fashioned even in 1863, of the "Damn your eyes!" type.

  The "says you" here is not quite the 20th C. "sez you!" but it suggests the possibility of more sarcastic or ironic usages in the later 19th C.

  The same song includes an ex. of  "wallop" = " to trounce, defeat decisively," a quotation that would enhance the OED article:

  "We must wallop these yanks pretty quick."

  JL


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