"Q: "show me out [something]" = show to me?

[Joel S. Berson]

I won't be able to demonstrate my inference fully
(or withdraw it) until I return to the text to
identify the characters and get some more context.

In the meantime, in the absence of such context,
I am also puzzled by "I'll send my servants with
an ox-goad to thee", trying to figure out whether
this is an offer of help, or a threat to smite (or prod out) with a weapon!

Joel

At 2/6/2008 11:47 AM, Andrea Morrow wrote:
> >        Doesn't it seem more likely that the speaker is asking to be
> > escorted out the back way (the postern)?
> >
> >
> > John Baker
> >
>
>Yes, that is how it seems to me, too - of the same type of
>construction as "show me out the door,"  meaning "walk with me to the
>door."  Admittedly, this use of "show [someone] out the door" can have
>negative connotations ("throw [someone] out"), but I've also heard it
>used in a neutral way, and I've found some hits for that more neutral
>use on google as well.  Here's an example from a blog, just posted
>this morning:
>
>"Xander let her show him out the door, still slightly unsettled.
>Seeing Dawn was great, but he had this nagging feeling that he'd been
>meaning to ask
 some kind of question
 to
 someone."
>http://deird1.livejournal.com/35644.html
>
>
>Andrea
>
>
>
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> > Of Joel S. Berson
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 10:55 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: "Q: "show me out [something]" = show to me?
> >
> > In an 1845 play, I find "Oh save me! Caleb, shew me out the postern ...
> > Bar the gates; No doubt they come to forage. Where's the postern?"
> >
> > I take this to mean "show [to] me the postern; show me where the postern
> > is."
> >
> > OED2 has only, under "VI. intr. To be seen, be visible, appear,"
> > sense 34, "show out.  a. ? To become visible, emerge from obscurity or
> > concealment; fig. to exhibit one's true character," 1839 through 1888.
> >
> > Does my reading seem correct, and a transitive use might be added to the
> > OED?
> >
> > Joel
> >
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>
>--
>Andrea Morrow
>Director of Writing Programs
>Stephen M. Ross School of Business
>The University of Michigan
>Room ER3615 Executive Residence
>Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234
>aandrea at umich.edu
>734.763.9317
>
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