"going it like cripples"

Tue Oct 4 17:49:38 UTC 2011

"Outhouse mouse!" was intended for HDAS as a variant of the allegedly
forthcoming "shithouse mouse!"  (HDAS X-ref'ing could be much improved. Mea
culpa!)

I also almost incl. a bracketed ref. to the title of de Camp's story as an
unusually prominent case of "gnarly" in pop literature which could have
sugg. the broader surfer sense of "tough; challenging; etc." Hence, "cool;
'tough.'"

But I decided that would be a bit too much.

JL

On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "going it like cripples"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> WRT seldom-heard (wasn't there once a character named "Seldom-Seen
> Smith," who was seldom seen?) exclamations:
>
> "Outhouse mouse! Let's get this show on the road!"
>
> That's the only thing that I took away from a story that I read in the
> Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, somewhere 'nother, back in the day.
> This is the only time that I've seen this exclamation and I've nver
> heard any one say it. Of course, I have heard and read,
>
> "Let's get this show on the road!"
>
> > 1838 _Morning Herald_ (NYC) (Aug. 6) [19th C. US Newsp.]: Jim _goes to_
> jump,
> > Frank _goes to_ fiddle, and George _[goes] to_ learn to dance. - "Go it
> ye cripples!"
> >
>
> This looks like the same _go to_ " have the intention to" or some
> such, (don't see it in HDAS, but, then, it's a regionalism, not slang)
> that's still around in BE and SE. I'm not certain, needless to say,
> but I think that it's now extinct in the North.
>
> While looking for -Go to_, I came across _gnarly_. Anybody else recall
> Lyon S. de Camp's SF story, The _Gnarly_ Man? IIRC, it was about a
> Neanderthal man who had somehow survived into modern times.
>
> --
> -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
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "going it like cripples"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > HDAS was supposed to have "Go it, you cripples!" from the same era, but
> it
> > seems to have
> > fallen through the cracks. (ISTR that I couldn't decide whether it should
> go
> > under "go" or "cripple." Â It was set aside in the confusion.
> >
> > However:
> >
> > 1834 _New Sporting Magazine_ (London) (Jan.) VI 204: Â The Chase...go it
> you
> > cripples!
> >
> > 1838 _Morning Herald_ (NYC) (Aug. 6) [19th C. US Newsp.]: Jim goes to
> jump,
> > Frank goes to fiddle, and George to learn to dance. - "Go it ye
> cripples!"
> >
> > 1839 _Ohio Statesman_ (Columbus, O.) (Aug. 21) [ibid.]: We again repeat,
> "go
> > it, cripples."
> >
> > 1840 _Ohio Statesman_ (Columbus, O.) (July 1) [ibid.]: Too much
> corruption
> > to hang on one stem, eh. Go it cripples, and old nick take the cast offs.
> >
> > 1852 John Morgan _The Life and Adventures of William Buckley_ (Hobart,
> Tas.:
> > MacDougall) 166 [ref. to ca1832]: Captain Preston...was somewhat
> remarkable
> > amongst us for odd expressions,=97made applicable by him, to all things,
> all
> > times, and all circumstances. The one most general with him was, "Go it
> ye
> > cripples." If the wine bottle was to be pushed about, the pass-word was,
> "Go
> > it ye cripples; " if at a rubber of whist, and the next player was a slow
> > coach, it was "Go it ye cripples; "=97if anything was to be said or done,
> the
> > cry was the same, "Go it ye cripples."
> >
> > 1860 [
> >
> http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=3D4=
> > 713759]:
> > Go it, ye cripples, wooden legs are cheap.
> >
> > 1863 "C.D." _From Matter to Spirit_ (London: Longman) xxxviii: Manners
> > before everything - a slang line which I suppose is part of a modern
> song:
> > Go it, ye cripples! crutches are cheap!
> >
> > 1891 _Milwaukee Sentinel_ (Jan. 4) 7 [ibid.]: A race! A race! Go it,
> > cripples! Ten thousand to nothing on the winner!
> >
> > Quaint, and GB has hundreds of ex. Â The expression was in use on three
> > continents. It is said that it originated in William Moncrieff's play of
> > Pierce Egan's "Tom and Jerry" (1821), but I haven't been able to verify
> > this.
> >
> > Since this is not HDAS, I save the best and currently earliest ex. for
> last=
> > .
> >
> >
> > 1833 William H. Breton _Excursions in New South Wales_ (London: Bentley)
> 27=
> > :
> > At a spot where they had no expectation of meeting with any person, they
> > heard a cry of Â "Go it, ye cripples, crutches are cheap!" Â On looking
> about
> > them, they observed some of the natives emerge from the forest, one of
> whom
> > must have heard an officer use the expression when exploring the country,
> > and not improbably fancied it was our mode of salutation.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 9:48 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu
> >wr=
> > ote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: Â  Â  Â  George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> >> Subject: Â  Â  Â "going it like cripples"
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > ------
> >>
> >> A wagon was broken in Chatham square yesterday -- the axletree giving
> way=
> > .
> >> Â The wagon was fully freighted with some half dozen jolly young
> gallants
> >> who
> >> were "going it like cripples" at the time.
> >> New York Herald, January 11, 1847, p. 2, col. 3
> >>
> >> Full text. Â No doubt the gallants were drunk; probably speeding, too
> (i.
> >> e.,
> >> driving more than 8 mph). Â Still. . . .
> >>
> >> GAT
> >>
> >> --
> >> George A. Thompson
> >> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> >> Univ.
> >> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --=20
> > "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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -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
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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