"The Horse You Rode In On"

Jesse Sheidlower jester at PANIX.COM
Sat Feb 24 13:31:47 UTC 2007


On Sat, Feb 24, 2007 at 08:10:16AM -0500, Fred Shapiro wrote:
> A friend has asked me about the background of the phrase "Fuck you and the
> horse you rode in on."  Can anyone shed any light on this, citational or
> speculative?

The earliest example in HDAS/The F-Word is from G. V. Higgins'
_The Friends of Eddie Coyle,_ there dated 1970-71 but first
published in 1972. I haven't recently done any sort of
checking on this but would welcome antedatings.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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