Query: "I've got your number."

[George Thompson]

        GAT says "Meanwhile, my own understanding of the expression "I've got your number" is not "I can make trouble for you; I can get back at you" but "I understand what a low, contemptible fellow you are"."

On further thought, this I would apply to "I've got your number" and "I've got her/his number".
It seems to me that from time to time I hear a baseball player say "He's really got my number", not meaning "He really knows what a sneaking reptile I am", but "He really dominates me; I can't buy a hit off of him".
Probably not the common meaning in 1810, though.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 1:46 pm
Subject: Re: Query: "I've got your number."
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> References to House-numbers, from NY City newspapers:
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