root, n. = "forceful kick"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has this British term at _root_, n.1, def. 17, but expresses uncertainty about its etymological connection.  The primary ex., from 1900, looks like real but indirect evidence of its usage. A more idiomatic ex., a few years earlier than the OED's next, is as follows:

  1930 C. R. Benstead _Retreat_ (N.Y.: Century Co.) 94 [ref. to 1918]: Proper root in the tail he'd get. That 'ud larn 'im.

  JL


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