Fed up

[James Knight, MLIS]

The Times, Tuesday, Jan 15, 1957; pg. 8; Issue 53739; col D
'Bored' With Sunday School Inquiry Into Loss Of Scholars

... the report says that the answers given by 1,000 children to the
question: "Why did you leave Sunday school?" were, in most cases, that they
had lost interest. Many stated tersely that Sunday school bored them. "I
got fed up of the same things over and over again." "I got tired of it
after all those years" (age 12). "Bored." "I did not learn anything." ...

The Times, Saturday, Jul 09, 1960; pg. 4; Issue 54819; col D
Court Hears Voice Of Dying Man Tape Recording Played At Inquest FROM OUR
CORRESPONDENT.

... The message left by the dead man on the tape recorder to his friend
said: "Dear Stephan, I am talking to you. Thank youvery much for what you
have done for me. I am fed up of all this, other people helping me along. ...

The Times, Wednesday, Jul 25, 1962; pg. 14; Issue 55452; col B
House Of Commons

Limited advertising on television
MR. CHAPMAN (Birmingham, Northfield, Lab.)
... To limit advertising in the way suggested might lead to a proliferation
of rather short programmes. The public has got rather fed up of seeing
stupendous profits made out of this intrusion into viewing time. ...

And so on.

An earlier, (The Times, Feb 12, 1931), op-ed piece on the literal vs.
metaphorical use of "fed up" includes: "According to the report, an escaped
convict recaptured on Tuesday, said to the police: "I am hungry and fed
up"; and probably neither he nor the policemen were just then aware that
they had witnessed a small but definite event in the history of the English
language. Hungry and fed up -- it is impossible to be both at once,..."
Further along, "...because 'fed up' has long been losing any literal
meaning it may once have had. Many a soldier wrote home from the front to
say that he was fed up with the War, but that the food was very good."

-jk

At 04:14 PM 12/21/03, you wrote:
>I have always said "fed up with"  sthg or other.  One of my daughters, who
>spent one year of her early adolescence in an English boarding school, says
>"fed up of," which I always think is simply a mistake.  Today, however, I
>ran across "fed up of" in an English novel  and am wondering if this is
>ordinary English usage. Is it normal in any North American region?
>A. Murie