believe you me!

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not quite parallel, but rhetorically emphatic:

"Not care for using bad grammar, *says you; no, says I*, not a farthing."

GB has that in 1813. There are several later exx. of this "says you...says
I."

I can't imagine where I picked it up - unless it Wallace Beery or Robert
Newton as Long John Silver.

JL

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:13 AM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> Subject:      believe you me!
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Any similar constructions, especially those designed to grab the hearer's
> attention?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> DKB
>
>
>
> Barnhart at highlands.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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