Hand to God

[Laurence Horn]

>
>On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 9:41 AM, paul johnson <paulzjoh at mtnhome.com> wrote:
>
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>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       paul johnson <paulzjoh at MTNHOME.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: Hand to God
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  paul johnson
>>
>>  Since at least the mid fifties I've heard and used "Right hand to God"
>>  used in Chicago, haven't heard it much in the last 20 years, but now I
>>  live in Arkansas.

Influenced by "(sitting on) the right hand of God"?

LH

>  >
>>  On 3/11/2011 8:02 AM, Karl Hagen wrote:
>>  > Someone in an online forum asked about "hand to God" as an equivalent to
>>  > what she (and I) would say as "I swear to God" (i.e., a strong assertion
>>  > that something is true), asserting that she is suddenly hearing it a lot.
>>  >
>>  > I hesitate to say that this is new (recency illusion and all that) but
>>  > it's certainly new to me. I don't see it in DARE, and a quick search of
>>  > Google Books turns up a lot of 19th century examples of "lift your hand
>>  > to God" and the like but nothing early with the "I swear" sense.
>>  >
>>  > Is this an established regional term that is now spreading, or is it
>>  > really new?
>>  >
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>
>
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