"send s.o. over"

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:44 AM -0700 4/20/08, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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]."

Is that version derivable from the geography of the Hudson River and
the location of Sing Sing (in Ossining, literally upriver from NYC),
or is that an etymythology?

LH

>  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"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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