Believe on me: WTF?

[Margaret Lee]

Somewhere in the King James version of the Bible, it says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thy shall be saved and thy house."

  As for "It's on you," it has been popular in the African American community for decades.

  --Margaret Lee

Leslie Savan <lsavan at VERIZON.NET> wrote:
  I don't know of studies, but for a few years now I've been hearing "It's on
you" and "It's on me," and they don't mean lunch. They mean "the ball's in
your court," "it's my responsibility," but more pumped up. Big in sports:
"It's a different system and a different offense and it's on me to catch
up," said [Kevin Curtis]. (from NBCSports.com. 8/28)
This "on," of course, doesn't replace the "in" in "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ." If that wasn't simply a typo, maybe the "on" functions
as it does in "carry on" or "keep on keeping on." "Believe on" as a
noncynical "dream on"?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Peters"
To:
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 2:29 PM
Subject: Believe on me: WTF?


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Mark Peters
> Subject: Believe on me: WTF?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
> Yesterday, I saw these words painted on the side of a building in Chicago:
>
> "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ..."
>
> "Believe on"? Is there some trend in preposition use that might make
sense of this? For years, I've been seeing student writers use "on" in ways
that sound godawful to me. Anybody know of any studies about broader use of
"on"?
>
> Mark
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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