fan-hitting (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Xxx hit the fan:

"Pacific Echoes" GENE SHERMAN _Los Angeles Times_; Sep 25, 1944; pg. 2
col 1

 "That was the place where everything hit the fan one night when my
platoon was on patrol."


Fit hit the shan:


Long Beach CA _Press Telegram_  9/20/1974 p. c-23 col 4
[display ad for Carson Toyota] "EVEN THE SHAN OF ARABIA HAD
A FIT OVER HIS NEW TOYOTA (THE FIT HIT THE SHAN)"



> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Baker, John
> Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 10:00 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: fan-hitting
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: fan-hitting
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
>         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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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