"See at" = see to, check; "see in" = look at

[Laurence Horn]

And while we're on the subject of odd prepositions, particularly
popping up in songs, how about the "from" that always puzzled me in
this verse, which I just heard on the radio:

I know you, rider, (you're) gonna miss me when I'm gone
I know you, rider, (you're) gonna miss me when Im gone
Gonna miss your baby, from rolling in your arms.

Often assumed to be by the Grateful Dead, who covered it, but it's a
lot older.  Older than the Joan Baez version from the early 60s.
Interesting that the syntax of that third line has been preserved
over what, 75 years?

LH


At 8:27 PM -0400 8/18/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Thirty-ish black male meter-reader in Cincy:
>
>"I was just going down into the basement to _see at_ the electric meters."
>
>Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins in song, Angel-Child:
>
>"I'm so happy to _see in_ her little old face"
>

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