[Ads-l] shoot one's wad (1860)

[Jonathan Lighter]

FWIW, the HDAS files have a 1927 sexual "shoot one's load."

JL

On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wrote about the expression for Slate today.
>
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/08/07/orrin_
> hatch_and_the_etymology_of_shot_their_wad.html
>
> --bgz
>
> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 11:41 AM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > This expression is in the news because of a quote from Sen. Orrin Hatch:
> >
> > http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/07/trump-obamacare-
> > congress-tax-reform-241340
> > "We’re not going back to health care. We’re in tax now. As far as I’m
> > concerned, they shot their wad on health care and that’s the way it is.
> I’m
> > sick of it."
> >
> > On Twitter, one reporter called the expression "graphic," likely assuming
> > it originally referred to ejaculation.
> >
> > https://twitter.com/NateWeixel/status/894570374989582336
> >
> > But as has been discussed here in the past, the original metaphorical
> > foundation of "shoot one's wad" has to do with the wadding used for
> loading
> > muskets and cannons and such.
> >
> > Here's the earliest metaphorical usage I've found, in the sense of "use
> up
> > all of one's resources" (in this case, rhetorical resources).
> >
> > Clearfield (Pa.) Republican, Aug. 15, 1860, p. 2, col. 5
> > He, too, was called to the stand, and after torturing himself severely
> > some thirty minutes, sat down -- not that the audience were tired of him,
> > by any means; but the gentleman _had shot his wad_.
> > https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=12925332
> >
> > --bgz
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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