More on Britishisms in AmE

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Phrase Finder website of Gary Martin has a relevant discussion.
The earliest example of the phrase "plum(b) tuckered out" that he
found was in 1871 and the "b" was omitted.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/tuckered-out.html

[Begin excerpt]

'Plumb tuckered out' is somewhat later and the first example I have is
from The Atlantic Monthly, November 1871, in a story called Wayside
Pikes:

   She then informed me that the first time she
   had mounted the colt he had nearly bucked her
   to pieces; he had jumped and jounced till she
   was plum tuckered out before he had given up.

[End excerpt]


Perhaps the coiner of the phrase had two objectives:
(1) Construct a future cliche.
(2) Enact a spelling reform.

On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 10:01 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: More on Britishisms in AmE
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Oct 1, 2012 at 3:14 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
>> "plum"
>
> You think that it should be spelled "plumb"?
>
> Me, too.
>
> --
> -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
>
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