change from the bottom up was re: accusative cursing

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nor in dialects I'm familiar with.  We are, however, speaking of a point of origin of more or less a century ago.

  The euphemized interpretation "short of luck" is uncommon and the "soldier out of luck" version close to unique :

            1917 in Russell Lord  _Captain Boyd's Battery, A.E.F._ ( Ithaca, N.Y.: Atkinson Press, 1920): _S.O.L._--Payroll abbreviation for soldier, adapted to mean Soldier Out 'a Luck or Certainly Out 'a Luck, according to how you spell it. Applicable to everything from death to being late for mess.

  This also happens to be the earliest "S.O.L." I know of. The nominal use implied above was rare but not quite unique :

  1918_The Stars & Stripes_ (Paris, France) (Apr. 5) 2: [The following poem] has certainly made a hit in the since-rechristened S.O.R. ["Service of the Rear," thence "Service of Supply"]....For I am an S.O.R. boy--also an S.O.L.,/ I never saw a battle, nor heard a screaming shell.

  Far more usual was the adj. :

  1919 _Literary Digest_ (Apr. 19) 107: We were sure S.O.L.

  1919 _Fifth Division Diamond_ (St. Esch, Lux.) (July 4) 2: S.O.L. Edition of the Cinqeme Division Golconda...By and For the S.O.L. members of the Cinq. Division.

1919 H.S. Warren _Ninth Company, 20th Engineers, Forestry, A.E.F._ (Lodi, Calif.:  Lodi Ptg., n.d.)  35: The Engineer's Dictionary..._Sool_--Sure out of luck.

  Cf. the last with "SOUL."

  Early evidence for the scatological form:

  1919 Erwin C. Garrett _Trench Ballads_ (Philadelphia: John C. Winston) 23: _S.O.L_....elegantly translated, means being totally and entirely out of luck, but [is] not to be adopted for "polite conversation." Remember this admonition.

  1920 Willis R. Skillman _The A.E.F._ (Philadelphia: G. W.Jacobs) 167: _S.O.L_.--Sadly out of luck (censored).

  1931 John Brophy & Eric Partridge _Songs & Slang of the British Soldier 1914-1918_ (London: Scholartis) 358: _S.O.L._...Sh-t, out of luck. Chiefly Canadian.

  JL

James Harbeck <jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James Harbeck
Subject: Re: change from the bottom up was re: accusative cursing
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I, OTOH, have never come across "es oh you el" before, only "ess oh
>el.". And I've heard "SOL" expanded only as "shit outta luck." FWIW,
>I've long been under the impression that "shit outta luck" is the
>antecedent of "SOL." However, I admit my impressions have turned out
>to be wrong on all-too-many other occasions.

I've also always been under the impression that "shit outta luck" is
the antecedent of "SOL." I'm inclined to disbelieve other etymologies
for SOL until such time as persuasive documentation is produced for
them. On the other hand, the phrase "shit outta luck" itself pleads
for some explanation... Use of "shit" in this manner (replaceable by
"plain," "plumb," "totally," etc.) is not a normal idiom in the
dialects I'm used to.

James Harbeck.

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