"down to"?

[Tom Zurinskas]

I remember a Rolling Stones song "under my thumb" which had lyrics "it's down to me what she wears".  In USA it would be "It's up to me."

Tom Zurinskas, from Conn 20 yrs, then Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 8.
Free English-based phonetic converter, URL and text , at truespel.com




>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> Subject: Re: "down to"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2/8/2011 03:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Yeah, they say it a lot.
> >
> >Sounds dumb.
>
> I'm now glad I don't. (I neglected to add that the OED refers one to
> "put down to", which I could say.)
>
> Joel
>
>
> >JL
> >
> >On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > > Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
> > > Subject: "down to"?
> > >
> > >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > From a BBC story on the discovery of "The Discovery", pornographic
> > > poems inserted into an edition of "The Works of the Earls of
> > > Rochester and Roscommon":
> > >
> > > "The success of two best-selling volumes of poetry published in the
> > > 18th Century was down to pornographic poems hidden in the book, an
> > > academic has suggested."
> > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12365355
> > >
> > > Is "down to" a Britishism? I see it at down, adv., 28.a. "to be down
> > > to: to be attributable to", from 1955.
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
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