Phrase: none of your funeral (antedating 1850 July 6) also shift in semantics

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue May 10 14:28:44 UTC 2011


At 5:03 AM -0400 5/10/11, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>
>funeral, adj. and n.
>Phrases Orig. U.S. slang.
>1. none of your (our, etc.) funeral : no affair of yours (ours, etc.),
>nothing to do with you (us, etc.).
>
>2. your ((etc.) funeral : your (etc.) affair or concern (often with an
>implication of unpleasant consequences).
>
>...
>The fist cite for Phrase 2 is:
>1908    S. E. White Riverman vii. 60   However, it's your funeral.
>Come on, if you want to.
>

Later adapted for that 60's zombie pop hit, "It's my funeral and I'll
come if I want to"

LH

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