[Ads-l] go for a "Burton"--a 1944 etymology guess

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great thanks to Geoff for accessing "Service Slang" and sharing what
he discovered back on August 21. I asked Geoff off-list about the
metadata for the volume so a complete and accurate citation could be
formulated, and he sent the following:

[Begin excerpt; two hyphens indicate a dash]
Hunt, J. L, and R. A. Pringle, 1943. Service Slang--A First Selection.
London: Faber and Faber., p. 36.
[End excerpt]

Special thanks to John Baker for searching for the terms "burton ale"
and "burton beer" in the British Newspaper Archive. Also, thanks to
all the other participants who have provided insightful contributions
to this fascinating discussion thread.

Garson


On Fri, Aug 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: go for a "Burton"--a 1944 etymology guess
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I searched for "burton ale" on British Newspaper Archive.  There were 1,153=
>  hits in 1900-1909, 479 hits in 1910-1919, 102 hits in 1920-1929, 96 hits i=
> n 1930-1939, and 9 hits in 1940-1949.  "Burton beer" gets 12 hits in 1940-1=
> 949.  Part of this is because BNA's coverage is reduced for periods later i=
> n time, so that "ale," for example, has only 23% of the hits in 1940-1940 t=
> hat it has in 1900-1909, but the pattern does seem to show that references =
> had become relatively uncommon by World War II.  Perhaps more significantly=
> , I found no uses of "go/going/gone/went for a burton" to mean gone to get =
> a beer or ale.
>
> Several examples of "gone for a burton" just use the phrase to mean "gone b=
> adly" - more or less the same as the contemporary British phrase "gone pear=
> -shaped."  This arguably includes the 1942 example where "gone for a burton=
> " was defined as "were severely reprimanded."
>
> I see an online poster suggests a different Cockney rhyme, deriving it from=
>  "gone for a Burton's suit/gone on a toot," Burton's being a leading Britis=
> h clothing retailer. This seems more plausible, though it lacks supporting =
> evidence.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Aug 20, 2015, at 11:06 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.CO=
> M> wrote:
>>=20
>> Michael Quinion examined the possibility that Burton referred to a
>> brand and wrote that the "most probable candidate, the Burton Brewery
>> Co Ltd, closed in 1935 and was hardly well-known even before then."
>>=20
>> Another hypothesis that has been raised on this thread is: Burton beer
>> referred to a type of beer and not a specific brand. Indeed, there are
>> many matches for "Burton beer" and "Burton Ale" in various databases
>> in the past.
>>=20
>> Bass brewery was founded in 1777 and is based at Burton-upon-Trent.
>> There is some evidence of a "Bass's Burton ale". An advertisement in
>> 1915 by an importer of Bass printed in a Connecticut newspaper stated
>> "Bass Strong Burton Ale / On Draught Everywhere". Perhaps it was "on
>> draught everywhere" in the U.K. Of course, 1915 is early. I do not
>> know if it was "on draught everywhere" in the U.K. in the 1930s and
>> 1940s. Other brewers perhaps made Burton ales, i.e., a drink that a
>> pubgoer would call a "Burton".
>>=20
>> The databases that I can search in the 1930s and 1940s primarily
>> contain U.S. newspapers, so it is difficult for me to access the
>> availability of Burton-type beers in the U.K.
>>=20
>> Year: 1908
>> Title: Culture by Conversation
>> Author: Robert Waters
>> Quote Page 218
>>=20
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Everybody has heard of Bass's Burton ale; but not everybody knows that
>> the brewer of the same was made a lord, and is now known as Lord
>> Burton.
>> [End excerpt]
>>=20
>>=20
>> Date: November 8, 1915
>> Newspaper: The Day
>> Newspaper Location: New London, Connecticut
>> Description: Advertisement from Bass & Co., Importers, 90 Warren St., New=
>  York
>> Quote Page 4, Column 7
>>=20
>> [Begin advertisement excerpt]
>> Bass Strong Burton Ale
>> On Draught Everywhere
>> [End excerpt]
>>=20
>> Garson

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