Hand to God

[Ann Burlingham]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:20 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Hand to God
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>> Influenced by "(sitting on) the right hand of God"?
>
> "[I raise my right] hand to God (as though I were swearing on the Bible?)!"
>
>
> Like Ron, I've been hearing various combinations, permutations, and
> probabilities of this all of my life. People don't only say it, but
> they also perform the gesture as much as they want to.

I'd never heard it until watching an episode of "Monk" recently, in
which Monk's half-brother uses it repeatedly.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org