"send s.o. over"

[Jonathan Lighter]

It meant "to send to prison."  Partridge cites an 1860 British ex. (unfortunately w/o the quotation or page no.) from "Charles Martel _The Detective's Note-Book_ (London: Ward and Lock).   In the U.S., there's:

  1872 Burnham _Memoirs of the United States Secret Service_ 86: The result was the whole concern was nabbed, and two or three of the operators were "sent over."

  Cf. more frequent syn. "send up [the river]." Hammett's generation of "ops" seems to have been the last to use this expression.

  I've ordered Martel on ILL.

  JL




Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: "send s.o. over"
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On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 6:59 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> At 4/19/2008 05:40 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> >"Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over," Humphrey Bogart says to Mary
> >Astor in The Maltese Falcon. In context, it's clear that what he
> >means is "turn you in to the police,"
>
> I always thought it meant "send you to the Great Beyond" -- that is,
> to the electric chair (or whatever California used then).

That wouldn't make sense in context. From John Huston's screenplay:

-----
http://www.filmsite.org/malt4.html
Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off
with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20
years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember
you.
-----

That's taken almost verbatim from the Hammett novel:

-----
http://www.amazon.com/gp/sitbv3/reader?asin=0752865331
He said: "I'm going to send you over. The chances are you'll get off
with life. That means you'll be out again in twenty years. You're an
angel. I'll wait for you." He cleared his throat. "If they hang you,
I'll always remember you."
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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