fan-hitting

[Baker, John]

        Not knowing how far back Gerald had taken it, I didn't spend too
much time looking at early examples, but there are references to "Shinto
Hit the Fan" during the Allied occupation of Japan in the 1940s, so it
goes back at least to then.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 10:29 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: fan-hitting

Thanks, Sam! That sounds closest to the answer to my original
question: how old is the expression? My other question is, of course,
unanswerable: how did it happen that I was totally unaware of the
original expression till after i had heard the feghoot of it? The story
was told by a black buddy to a group of us and I was the only one who
had to have it explained to him. So, clearly, it wasn't a racial thing.

Oh, well.

-Wilson

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