Antedating of "Been There, Done That" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

The _Queenslander_ [Brisbane] has "Men had been there, done the work,
and disappeared." From 22 Jan 1898

More on point:

Reggie Jackson "Charged Up Champion" LA Times 8/30/1975 p 6 col 1
(ProQuest Hist Newspapers)
"This is a man who has been there and done it and if you don't pay him
respect, he'll ruin you." [Reggie Jackson speaking about Joe Rudi;
excerpted from _Reggie:  A Season with a Superstar_ by Reggie Jackson
and Bill Libby, Chicago: Playboy Publishing, 1975.]

_Kingman [AZ] Daily Miner_ 10/25/1976 p. 5 col 7 (Google news archive)
"The there is the other main category -- the people I don't like enough
to spend 13 cents and the price of a card on.  The come in three
sub-groups and are labeled as (1) slim, (2) optimistic, and (3) "I've
been there and done that already." "


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 11:37 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Antedating of "Been There, Done That"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Antedating of "Been There, Done That"
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> I have previously pushed back the phrase "been there, done that" to
1982.
> Here is a 1979 citation from Google News Archive.  It is from an
Australian
> newspaper, reinforcing the apparent Australian provenance of the
phrase:
>
> 1979 _The Age_ 3 Dec. 11 (Google News Archive)  Mr. Lynch has
continued to
> recover from the 1977 crisis when he was forced to resign over his
family
> financial affairs.  Although he now appears certain to stay past the
next
> election, he has the air of the man who says "I've been there, done
that."
>
>
> Fred Shapiro
> Editor
> YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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