[Ads-l] dob (someone in), v.

[Robin Hamilton]

>From GDoS:


dob (in) v.

[dial. dob, to put down with a sharp, abrupt motion](Aus./N.Z.) -- citations
from 1884 on.

dob oneself in (v.)

(Aus.) to let oneself in for problems.

1981 - 2002

1981 	  	B. Humphries Nice Night’s Entertainment
https://greensdictofslang.com/sources/2007 (1981) 42: She dropped the broad hint
that she’d like to go up to [...] Stratford some time [...] and I more or less
dobbed myself in.

... three citations in all.

Looks as if it starts English, moves to the Colonies, then tracks back to the
US.

But I'm guessing ...

Robin

> 
>     On 31 October 2016 at 23:18 Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET> wrote:
> 
>     So my spouse comes down the stairs yesterday and says she has a question
>     about a word. An English word. A contact she is going to work with during
>     an upcoming (international) meeting wrote her that he "has dobbed [her] in
>     for a session with [person] about [complicated network security topic]".
>     The sense was something along the lines of "penciled her in" or "scheduled
>     her". Wictionary has a few senses of dob (v.), usually with the
> preposition
>     in, one of which is "To nominate a person, often in their absence, for an
>     unpleasant task", which is probably what we're dealing with. It's "chiefly
>     Australian", which fits because the speaker works for an organisation that
>     operates in the Asia/Pacific region. I don't have access to Macquarie. The
>     OED relates it to dab (v.), but only has the specialised sense dob on
>     someone = inform on someone, betray.
> 
>     I'm somewhat doubtful that the episode indicates migratory tendencies on
>     the part of this word, but just in case others have noticed it, let it be
>     noted here.
> 
>     Chris
> 
>     --
>     Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
>     http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu
> 
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>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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