dialect tidbit

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 22, 2004, at 3:26 PM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      dialect tidbit
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> --------
>
> A student of mine from SW Virginia (Roanoke) gave me a phrase that
> first
> sounds like a phatic greeting but really isn't:  "Good day!" or "Good
> day
> in the morning time!" or "Great day (in the morning time)!"  It's
> really an
> interjection, meaning "Wow! Gosh! Heck!" (her words).
>
> Has anyone else heard of this expression?  The student's classmate from
> northeastern Virginia was not familiar with it.  But the more I think
> of
> it, the more it sounds vaguely like an Irish expression.  Ring a bell?
>

In the days of the horse-opera Westerns, "Great day in the morning!"
(sic) was an expression commonly used by the sidekick or the school
marm or other non-heroic characters, but I've never heard it used in
real life.

-Wilson Gray