pissed as a newt/Albert Jack's book

Lynne Murphy m.l.murphy at SUSSEX.AC.UK
Fri Oct 20 20:01:00 UTC 2006


Just writing a blog entry and have drafted this--but before I post it, does
anyone have any evidence in favour of what looks like an 'etymythology'
from Albert Jack?  There's nothing about his linguistic credentials in his
book or the Penguin authors website, and no bibliography in his book.

>From the blog entry (sorry, formatting lost):
According to Red Herrings and White Elephants by Albert Jack, the newts in
pissed as a newt weren't originally animals, but young men who were hired
to watch gentlemen's horses while they were out on the town. The gentlemen
would return from their libations to find that the "newts" had tippled too.
However, there's no record of this sense of newt in the OED and Partridge's
Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English says the phrase
probably comes from Army officers' slang. Is Albert Jack a quack? Mr Jack,
what are your sources?

Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer and Head of Department
Linguistics and English Language
Arts B135
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

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