[Ads-l] _to lose one's hair_ Beatles Don't Pass me by

[Laurence Horn]

> On Oct 24, 2018, at 2:07 PM, Parish, James <jparish at SIUE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Ah. So the corresponding variant for the other phrase would be "lost 
> your shirt"?
> 
> Jim Parish
> 
> On 10/24/2018 1:04 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>> The phrase "keep your hair on" has a long history and seems to mean
>> "keep your composure". Perhaps "you lost your hair" meant "you lost
>> your composure" or "you lost your temper".
>> 
>> Year: 1889
>> Title: A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant
>> Compiler and Editor: Albert Barrère and ?Charles G. Leland
>> Publisher: Printed for Subscribers Only
>> Quote Page 442
>> 
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Hair (common) "keep your hair on," do not be excited, keep your
>> temper; varied to "keep your shirt on.”

And for the passive-aggressive among us, “keep your hairshirt on"
>> 
>> With the most perfect good temper the new-comer answered the
>> expostulations of the fat woman with a "Keep yer hair on,
>> Lizer."--Sporting Times.
>> [End excerpt]
>> 
>> Garson
>> On Wed, Oct 24, 2018 at 11:24 AM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I've always wondered about the line explaining her lateness: "you were in a
>>> car crash and you lost your hair."  In the WikiP article, they have:
>>>  However, the expression "to lose one's hair" was a fairly common English
>>> idiom, and simply means "to become anxious or upset" (see, for
>>> instance, Elizabeth
>>> Bowen <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bowen>'s novel *The Death of
>>> the Heart <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_the_Heart>*, 1938)
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Pass_Me_By
>>> 
>>> While it makes a little more sense that way for the song but a few googles
>>> don't come up with any hair losing/become upset idioms, English (British?)
>>> or otherwise.
>>> --
>>> 
>>> a
>>> 
>>> Andy Bach,
>>> afbach at gmail.com
>>> 608 658-1890 cell
>>> 608 261-5738 wk
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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