get one's goat (1906)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2014 at 6:10 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>
> I presented my notion and reviewed a few examples here in 2005:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/oymgto6
>
> or
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0503D&L=ADS-L&P=R10646&1=ADS-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

Sorry I missed this very interesting summary. The early examples of
"lose one's goat" (= 'lose one's composure') are especially
illuminating. Here's an even earlier cite from the Jersey Journal:

1906 Mar 21 _Jersey Journal_ 2/6 Joseph Dunn, 24 years old, of 88
Beacon Avenue, lost "his goat" yesterday when small boys with hard
snowballs used him for a target.

--bgz

-- 
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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