[Ads-l] to (have) got this

[Laurence Horn]

Also “I got your back” 

> On Jan 24, 2018, at 10:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
>> I began noticing this about ten years ago. FWIW.
> 
> I recall it from ca. 1995 both as
> 
> "I got this/that"
> and
> "I got you"
> 
> They both mean, "(Whatever the situation is,) you don't have to be
> concerned, because the situation is under my control and (as Flip Wilson
> used to say) 'I'm gon' look out for you!'" Or, as the robber said to The
> Pawnbroker, in the movie, "Cool it, baby. Don't get up tight!"
> 
> On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 7:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> I began noticing this about ten years ago. FWIW.
>> 
>> JL
>> 
>> On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 10:47 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> A quick glance at Wiktionary, the English Oxford Living Languages and the
>>> HDAS doesn’t yield this expression. It means “will handle this
>>> challenge/problem right now."
>>> 
>>> With the third person plural and the ass pronouns, I think the ’s of
>>> “have” is obligatory, though I’m probably wrong:
>>> 
>>> s/he’s got this
>>> my ass/your ass, etc. ’s got this
>>> 
>>> With the other persons, I think “have” is skipped:
>>> I/you/we/you guys/they got this
>>> 
>>> The OLL does have, under “get”:
>>> Succeed in attaining, achieving, or experiencing; obtain.
>>> 
>>> ‘I need all the sleep I can get’
>>> ‘he got a teaching job in California’
>>> 
>>> Both Wiktionary and OLL (the latter cited here) have:
>>> Respond to a ring of (a telephone or doorbell)
>>> 
>>> Benjamin Barrett
>>> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -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

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