"smart off" and another metaphorical "north of" on NBC news

[Laurence Horn]

On Sep 4, 2014, at 10:03 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> I'm surprised that "smart off" in the relevant - or in any other - meaning
> is so rare and obscure! It's as unexpected - to me, anyway - as "laid to
> the bone" meaning "drunk and/or high."
> 
> Youneverknow.
> 
> Boys' Life - Dec 1970 - Page 58
> books.google.com/books?id=Vo0lBgYISR4C
> Vol. 60, No. 12 - ‎Magazine - ‎Full view
> 
> "We call the shots like we see them. ... Your parents bought a two-bit
> ranch at the end of Gooseberry Run and think they can make it go. You go
> over to town and
> 
> _smart off_
> 
> to the school board and the superintendent and take a lot of fancy courses
> in how to drive."

I think my subscription to Boys' Life must have lapsed by then.

LH
> 
> 
> On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 9:02 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 8:25 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> "smart off"
>> 
>> 
>> Uh, what's interesting about this, Lar?
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> -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
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -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
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org