[Ads-l] "receipts" = "proof"

[Neal Whitman]

Wow, I have no memory of this during the WOTY vote! I must have dozed 
off during that part. Thanks for the link to the "Among the New Words".


On 10/30/2017 11:28 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> "Receipts" was the runner-up (behind "woke") in the Slang Word of the Year
> category in the 2016 ADS WOTY voting.
>
> https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf
>
> You can see our "Among the New Words" treatment of "receipts" in the May
> 2017 issue of American Speech (pp. 214-5).
>
> https://bit.ly/ATNW92-2
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 11:19 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>
> wrote:
>
>> I recently became aware of the word "receipts" to mean "proof", not
>> necessarily proof involving receipts. My son was imagining proving to
>> someone that his story about a peer of his was true by showing them some
>> screen caps of text exchanges. He said, "I'd be like, 'Take a look at these
>> receipts!'" I didn't know that the apps he used for communicating showed
>> read-receipts, and even if they did, why would someone need proof that this
>> person read HIS messages instead of proof of the messages THEY sent to HIM?
>> He explained this more general meaning.
>>
>> A couple of days ago, I saw this thread of tweets, in which "receipts" is
>> used this way, and also is called out: https://twitter.com/bluelightt
>> v/status/924091177724387329
>>
>> The top definition on Urban Dictionary is from 2016, and matches my son's
>> usage precisely:
>> receipts <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=receipts>
>> Evidence or proof <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=proof>.
>> Often in the form <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=form>
>> of screenshots or saved <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=saved> snaps.
>> Emma: Bitch where the fuck did she say she was going <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=going>
>> Sophie <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sophie>: Pull up <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pull%20up> them receipts
>> by PhoodoVoodoVaVaVoom <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/author.php?author=PhoodoVoodoVaVaVoom> November 21, 2016
>>
>> The second-most popular is the earliest UD definition, which despite being
>> incredibly ineptly written, offers a possible origin story to follow up:
>> receipts <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=receipts>
>> 1. To disbelive something <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=something> so much that some kind of hard evidence is
>> required.
>> 2. To be so frustrated by a social situation that you wish there was some
>> kind of red tape to guide it with.
>> Origin- Whitney <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Whitney>
>> Houston's Diane Sawyer interview, where Whitney requests Diane provide
>> reciepts for her allegation of over $100 <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=100>,000 Crack Cocaine purchases.
>> 1a. "Miss Whitney does not do crack <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=crack>, o.k.! Crack <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=Crack> is for poor people! I want you to show me the
>> receipts <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=receipts>
>> Diane, Show Me The Receipts <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=Receipts>!"
>> 1b. Carl,"I met Johnny Depp last night at the Green Mill and we sat up
>> drinking and screwing hookers till dawn!"
>> Tad, "Receipts Carl, receipts."
>> 2. Wancy, "They're waiting for us down at Friends <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Friends>, we've got to
>> leave now. Guy's, Guy's, is anyone listening to me? We have to go or
>> they'll all be drunk as shit when we get there... (muttering dejectedly)
>> receipts..."
>> by Krazy-K <https://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Krazy-K>
>> September 07, 2005
>>
>> The fourth most-popular one seems to be a reaction against this extended
>> use of "receipts":
>> receipt <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=receipt>
>> A piece <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=A%20piece> of
>> paper <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=paper> you get to
>> prove your purchase <https://www.urbandictionary.c
>> om/define.php?term=purchase>.
>> i bought <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bought> shoes <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shoes> and got <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=got> a receipt from the
>> cashier.
>> #buy <https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=buy>#recipt <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=recipt>#purchase <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=purchase>#sell <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=sell>#aquire <
>> https://www.urbandictionary.com/tags.php?tag=aquire>
>> by Meni <https://www.urbandictionary.com/author.php?author=Meni> October
>> 23, 2006
>>
>> The Diane Sawyer interview seems to have happened in 2002. Here's a
>> YouTube clip uploaded in 2009:
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdyaLWMt6qA
>>
>> Houston actually does say, "I want to see the receipts from whoever I
>> bought the drugs from." On the one hand, she seems to be referring to
>> actual receipts. On the other hand, I wasn't aware that drug dealers wrote
>> receipts.
>>
>> You can also find animated GIFs of this clip.
>>
>>
>> Neal
>>
>>
>>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

-- 
Dr. Neal Whitman
Lecturer, ESL Composition
School of Teaching and Learning
College of Education and Human Ecology
85 Arps Hall
1945 North High Street
whitman.11 at osu.edu
(614) 260-1622


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