fall out (was "From a post to Facebook")

[Indigo Som]

I say & hear "fall out" often enough that I don't think anything of it. I think of generic "fall out" as applying to helpless laughter, but "fall out" can also be applied to other emotionally out of control states, like "fall out in a mess" at a funeral. For me, the lack of control is key to the meaning of the term.

I know I didn't say this growing up. I'm quite sure I picked it up from African American peers, probably sometime in the late 80s/early 90s. fwiw...

> From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Date: 12 October 2012 11:48:54 PM PDT
> Subject: From a post to Facebook
> 
> 
> "We _fell out_, laughing our asses off!"
> 
> 
> _Fall out_ "burst into laughter" is something that my parents and
> others of similar age and background used, when I was a child. I
> thought that it had died with them. It had no traction among those of
> us born in the 'Thirties.
> 
> The writer identified herself only as a member of Lefteous
> Indignation. So, I have further info that might make this more useful
> than a random anecdote.
> 
> --
> -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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