Fun with phrases: "There. I said it."

[Jonathan Lighter]

A current commercial has some guy admitting he has "Low-T"  ("low
testosterone").

He follows that up immediately with, "There. I said it."    That means,
roughly, "What I've just said is of crucial significance, but till now I've
been keeping my mouth shut to save face or to protect us from the facts."

I've been noticing this bit of linguistic melodrama for several years.

A GB search reveals the song "There, I Said it" (perhaps inspired by 1945's
"There, I Said it Again!") as among the Top 100 C&W hits for a number of
weeks in 1975. Margo Smith was the singer-songwriter.

GB shows the phrase being used informally almost right away, but usage
really seems to have taken off ca1994.

JL

--
"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