Semantic shift of _knock yourself out_? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

This usage doesn't strike me as unusual.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Wilson Gray
> Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 10:08 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Semantic shift of _knock yourself out_?
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Semantic shift of _knock yourself out_?
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
>
> From some random TV drama:
>
> A. "I should have done this! I would have done that! I could have done
> the other!"
>
> B. "Hey, don't _knock yourself out_! You did the best you knew how, at
> the time."
>
>
> Usually, the cliche, "don't _beat yourself up_" occurs in such a
> context. Perhaps it was too cliched for the screenwriter and he
> decided to write differentm without regard to the fact that one of my
> pet peeves is the screwing-up of cliches. I once suffered the horror
> of living around the corner from a shop named, "To Each _Their_ Own."
>
> Aaarrrggghhh!!!
>
> "To each _his_ own" is an old saw, the title of a major motion
> picture, and the title of a Top-40 song!
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org