[Ads-l] Phrase: take the mickey out of (May 28, 1923; antedates OED)

[Wilson Gray]

> I just opened to take him down.

Is there a version of this in Yankspeak?

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 11:53 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> The OED has "to take the mickey (out of): to behave or speak
> satirically or mockingly; to make fun of, satirize, or debunk (a
> person or thing)." The first OED citation is dated 1948.
>
> The OED also has "to take the piss (out of): to make fun (of), to
> mock, deride, satirize; = to take the mickey (out of) at mickey." The
> first OED citation is dated 1945.
>
> Below is pertinent citation for "take the mickey out of" in a London
> newspaper in 1923.
>
> Date: May 28, 1923
> Newspaper: Daily Herald
> Newspaper Location: London, England
> Article: Runs Risk for Girl
> Quote Page 7, Column 5
> Database: British Newspaper Archive
>
> [Begin excerpt; double-check for errors]
> RUNS RISK FOR GIRL
> Dangerous Driving Charge Sequel to Taunt
>
> "It's like this—a man in a motor-car
> was trying to take the 'mickey' out of
> me, and I just opened to take him down.
> He turned round and laughed at me as he
> passed, and the girl the back of my bike
> said, 'I shouldn't stand that,' I shot
> ahead of him." This was the excuse of
> Clifford Smith, baker, Uppingham-road,
> Leicester, when charged with dangerous
> driving at the Leicester court.
>
> For "shooting ahead" he was ordered
> to pay £3 and his licence was endorsed.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

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