Heard on The Judges: BE "down [someone]" = sE "put [someone] down"

[Wilson Gray]

Judge Mathis, 49-year-old, black male speaker, to defendant:

"You just got *through* saying, 'I wasn't returning his text messages
because he was _downing_ me'!"

(Actually, the defendant had said, "... he was being insulting to me.")


This use of _down_ was "standard" in my lost youth, but this is the
first evidence that I've had that it's still being used, by people
young enough to be my children, at least. As to whether it's still
being used by people young enough to be my grandchirrin, further
deponent knoweth not.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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