"What part of 'No!' ...?"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The webpage Larry cites erroneously mentions "So sue me!" as a phrase that emerged in the '80s or '90s.

  I've been using it since at least the mid-'60s.  I probably picked it up from TV. It's widely known in NYC.

  It's a useful rejoinder to any complaint whatsoever. Guaranteed to spike their blood pressure !  Especially when delivered deadpan, like you "could care" less.

  JL
Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: "What part of 'No!' ...?"
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At 2:27 PM -0400 10/25/06, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Lexis/Nexis yields a 1989 instance from the Washington Post (26
>Oct.), noting the expression as a button-inscription.
>
>--Charlie
>________________

On indirect evidence, we can push it back another year:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/what-part-of-no.html

LH

>_________________
>
>---- Original message ----
>>Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:19:26 -0700
>>From: Jonathan Lighter
>>Subject: "What part of 'No!' ...?"
>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>>
>>This has become a big-time cliche' over the last few years, right
>>there with the somewhat older "Read my lips!"
>>
>> Here's the earliest I've found :
>>
>> 1992 _L.A. Times_ (Washington ed.) (July 8) B6 [cited at:
>>http://groups.google.com/group/sci.med.aids/browse_thread/thread/72ca435d6d1d391f/6fc718634a554f98?lnk=st&q=%22what+part+of+no+don%27t+you+understand%22+1991&rnum=9#6fc718634a554f98]
>>: The spots all involve teenagers and how they handle the peer
>>pressure to have sex. "Just what part of 'no' don't you
>>understand?" a teenager tells her boyfriend.
>>
>> JL
>>
>
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