beddy-bye; sparrow-crack

[Wilson Gray]

Perhaps a cross between "sparrow-fart" and "crack of dawn"?

-Wilson

On 9/22/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      beddy-bye; sparrow-crack
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED seems to lack an entry. Incredible!:
>
>   1921 Ardern Beaman _The Squadroon_ (London: John Lane) 137 [ref. to 1918]: Well, we've got to get up at sparrow crack - train goes at half-five, so I'm for beddy-byes [sic].
>
>   "Sparrow-fart" is dated to 1886, but the euphemistic "sparrow-crack" is absent.
>
>   JL
>
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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