up sticks/up stakes: eggcorn origin?

Charles Doyle cdoyle at UGA.EDU
Fri May 18 16:32:30 UTC 2007


Be that as it may, I HAVE often heard white folks use the expression "cut out" meaning 'depart suddenly or noisily (as with the squealing of tires)'; I've almost certainly said it myself.

It could be a feature of Texas English, or just a cootism.

--Charlie


---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 11:05:03 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: up sticks/up stakes: eggcorn origin?
>
>Bill, you're forgetting that this is the United States, not some free
>country "with liberty and justice for all," as that laughable "pledge
>of allegiance says. If *you* have never heard a white person say "cut
>out" = "depart," what are the chances that *I* would have heard a
>white person say "cut out" = "depart"? OTOH, I've heard it said
>hundreds of thousands of times by black people and I say it myself.
>
>I grant your claim that, if you did hear a white person say "cut out"
>= "depart," you would understand his meaning. I certainly don't
>consider BE to be a code that white people can't understand nor do I
>think that the use of certain forms by blacks precludes the use of
>those same forms by whites. :-)
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 5/18/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

>> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> >
>> > FWIW, "cut out" = "depart" in BE.
>> >
>>
>> Solely BE?  If I heard a white guy talk about "cutting out", I think it
>> would be clear what he meant (although I can't ever specifically
>> remember hearing anyone, white or black, use the phrase.)
>

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