believe you me in oed

[Jonathan Lighter]

I was trying to cover the possibility that "believ'st thou me" might appear
as a question, a direct statement, or even an ungrammatical imperative.  It
didn't. There were no hits on "believe thou me" either

As a putative 18th C. imperative (with "you"), the question is still open
because of the
nearly 18,000 (presumably) false positives.

JL

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 4:32 PM, Gordon, Matthew J.
<GordonMJ at missouri.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Gordon, Matthew J." <GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: believe you me in oed
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Maybe I'm missing your point, but the verb in "believe you me" is
> imperative, isn't it? So 2nd singular precedents wouldn't have the
> indicative -est suffix.
>
> -Matt Gordon
>
> On Sep 23, 2011, at 2:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > ECCO finds nothing at all for the following:
> >
> > believest thou me
> >
> > believ'st thou me
> >
> > Then there are 17,000+ hits for "believe you me."
> >
> > Every one I've checked is actually no more than "believe me."
> >
> > Not that I've checked every one, but the total absence of the other forms
> > bodes poorly.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: believe you me in oed
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> I should say, "World War II writings by veterans," to be precise.
> >>
> >> They may all have decided to make it up years later, those rascals.
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 1:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >>> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Common in WWII, but more often "I shit you not."
> >>>
> >>> JL
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 1:24 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>> -----------------------
> >>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >>>> Subject:      Re: believe you me in oed
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> There's "I kid you not", of Jack Paar (at least evanescent) fame.
> >>>>
> >>>> LH
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sep 23, 2011, at 10:39 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Nice one, Dave.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Just check the syntax.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> JL
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:19 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 in oed
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> The turn of phrase must go back further than 1808 (OED's earliest
> >>>> quote).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>> 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
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> >> truth."
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "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
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "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
>



--
"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