dialect tidbit

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Plague take it" sounds like it used to be a euphemism for 16th-19th C. "Pox take it!"

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: dialect tidbit
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On Sep 23, 2004, at 4:33 PM, Orin Hargraves wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Orin Hargraves
> Subject: Re: dialect tidbit
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>>
>> I'll add my great-aunt's "good night shirt!!," in which the shirt was
>> simply added for emphasis. I never heard her swear, but this one and
>> one
>> I can't pull together at the moment which started "chicken..." and was
>> xclearly another of her euphemisms.
>>
> I also had a great aunt (from SW Louisiana), admirable for her
> avoidance of
> vulgarisms. Her expression of great surprise was "For garden seed!"
>
> Orin Hargraves
>

Reminds me of my mother's "Merciful speed!" "Plague take it!" and "Dog
bite it!" are another couple of her favorites.

-Wilson Gray

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