Hand to God

[Joel S. Berson]

At 3/11/2011 10:52 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

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

By "Place your left hand on the Bible, raise your right hand, and swear".

Joel


>>  >
>>>  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?
>>>  >
>>>  > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>  --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  "And so another day fails to meet its promise and
>>>  has spun out into procrasturbatory entropy."
>>>                         David Rakoff
>>>
>>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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