push comes to shove (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

The _Macon [GA] Telegraph_ 9/10/1899, p. 8 col 3 has a letter to the
editor (written 9/9/1899) entitled "Push Comes to Shove" (seen in
Newsbank Historical Newspapers).  The letter bemoans the fact that areas
formerly populated by whites are now populated by blacks -- the whites
have been pushed out.

Also:

_Macon Telegraph_ 11/6/1916 p 4 col 5
"When the push comes to a shove, and the getting-off point is reached, I
don't think the State need strangle on caught breath if the Governor
runs in a dark horse -- "a rank outsider," so to speak."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 10:14 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: push comes to shove (1924)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      push comes to shove (1924)
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> The latest OED draft entry for "push" has "if/when push comes to
> shove" from 1940. Some earlier cites (the first three are from "The
> Week," by Defender columnist Roscoe Simmons):
>
> ---
> 1924 _Chicago Defender_ 9 Aug. II1/2 "Defense day," backed by
> President Coolidge, will be used to show you what you could do in a
> pinch and, also, to show Europe what Uncle Sam can do if push comes to
> shove.
> ---
> 1924 _Chicago Defender_ 4 Oct. II1/2 Hope that this matter will blow
> over, but if push comes to shove and you are called, don't make a
> mistake.
> ---
> 1926 _Chicago Defender_ 20 Feb. II1/2 He may even give the register of
> the treasury to some dark American if push comes to shove.
> ---
> 1932 _Chicago Defender_ 23 Jan. 14/2 Indeed, American sailors, like
> all Americans, are tough on ladies, all outside of their "race" first,
> and then their own if push comes to shove, at sea, on land, home or
> abroad.
> ---
> 1935 Arna Bontemps _Black Thunder_ 53 And, let push come to shove, He
> going to fight them down like a flock of pant'ers, He is.
> http://books.google.com/books?id=z3wGAQAAIAAJ
> ---
> 1937 _Atlanta Daily World_ 9 Mar. 2/6 It would be better, when push
> comes to shove, for you to put all of them out and after they are out
> a little while and realize what it is all about, they will be glad to
> come back and be good.
> ---
>
> And M.J. Devaney sends this one along:
>
> ---
> 1931 _Baltimore Sun_ 5 Dec. 36 "It's got to be one or two [whites],
> but if push come to shove, they're not going to do no better'n keep
> quiet." (in: "Mob Took Negro from Her Custody," quoting Snow Holden
> from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, regarding the inability of blacks
> to trust whites in the wake of the Matthew Williams lynching in 1931)
> ---
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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