Antedating of "Been There, Done That"

[Charles Doyle]

As I'm sure Fred had discovered, Google Books gives a 1979 citation that's entirely bogus.

This one is more interesting, if only because it shows how a collocation can occur but only later become proverbial (or such is probably the case here):

"Gwen sat down next to Harry. 'It sounds too fascinating. Have you been there and done that?' / 'Oh no. I read of it in the _Times_, that's all I do.'" From a story by Leonard Sidney Woolf in _The Wise Virgins_ (1914; p. 22 in the 1979 Harcourt edition).

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 19:23:19 -0500
>From: Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
>Subject: Antedating of "Been There, Done That"

>
>been there, done that (OED 1983)
>
>1982 _Syracuse Herald-American_ 21 Feb. 11 (Newspaperarchive)  Miss [Lauren] Tewes, who has just divorced, says she doesn't plan to get married at this time.  Using an Australian expression, she says, "Been there, done that."
>
>Fred Shapiro

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