Not in DARE

[Wilson Gray]

On 11/19/05, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject: Re: Not in DARE
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >Now hear this!
> >Now hear this!
> >The following-named enlisted men
> >Lay up to the troop-commander's office this time!
> >I say again:
> >Lay up to the troop-commander's office this time!
> >
> >I still wonder exactly what that meant.
>
> "Lay" is essentially "go", I think. I naively suppose this probably
> originated from something like "lay a course".
>
> Here is a glossary showing "lay":
>
> http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~morris3/DanaSFLex.html
>
> MW3 shows "lay up" [intransitive] = "to shape the course of a ship".
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>


Thanks, Doug.
--
-Wilson