"right back at you"

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is an instance in 1903 of "right back at you" that is part of a
(hostile) greeting dialog. There are earlier instances of the phrase,
but I was trying to find an example somewhat similar to LH's example.

Cite: 1903 September 6, Cleveland Plain Dealer, What Wins in the West,
Section: Sunday Magazine, Page 10 [GNB Page 38], Cleveland, Ohio.
(GenealogyBank)

[Begin excerpt]
" 'Hello, thar!' he bawled. 'Ain't yore name Frank?'
"'Yes; I replied.
"'Well, my name's Horr, an I've ben hatin' you worse'n --- for two months.'
" 'Same right back at you, Horr,' I retorted; 'only I've been hating
you only about two weeks-ever since you beat up Graham.'
[End excerpt]

The three dashes above appear as a single long dash in the text. Typos likely.
Garson

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 9:13 AM, 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: "right back at you"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Looks like it began before 1932.
> But seriously. This ex. is decades earlier than any other I've seen.
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 11:56 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:      "right back at you"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Watching "Guilty Hands", a 1931 movie with a "perfect crime" theme shown
>> on TCM, I was wondering about an exchange between the Richard Grant, the
>> murderer (and former D.A.), played by John Barrymore, and the chief of
>> police (an old colleague of his) whom he welcomes to his house, where the
>> murder has just taken place.  Grant/Barrymore, coming down the stairs,
>> cheerfully greets him:
>>
>> Richard Grant: "Well, well, well, Bill Mott!"
>> Bill Mott:        "Right back atcha, Dickie!"
>>
>> I didn't realize this use of "Right back at you" (or "atcha", with allegro
>> palatalization) was around in 1931.  Anyone know when it began?
>>
>> LH
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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