"to out (with)" = "bring out", "come out with", 1848

[Joel S. Berson]

The following surprised me, but I see it is "out, v." sense 4.a., "
intr. colloq. and regional. to out with : to fetch, draw, or bring
out; spec. to come out with, utter (cf. sense 2a)."  Although merely
an interdating (the OED's first example is 1802), it is from a FDWA
(famous dead white author) -- later FDWA's uttering "out (with)" are
Shaw, Runyon, Faulkner, and _Bookseller_; and perhaps second only to
an 1833 quotation for "utter" -- that is, for "coming out with" words.

"My instinct is to out with the Romance, & let me say that instincts
are prophetic, & better than acquired wisdom."

Melville, letter to John Murray, 1848.  Quoted in "New Essays on the
Scarlet Letter", ed. Michael J. Colacurcio (New York: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1985), p. 38.  Citing "The Letters of Herman Melville", ed.
Merrell R. Davis and William H. Gilman (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press,
1960), p. 71.

Interdates OED3 (Dec. 2004) "out, v." sense 4.a., 1833 - 1871.

Joel

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