[Ads-l] To Bed without Dinner

Baker, John JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM
Mon Oct 15 16:41:52 UTC 2018


It’s “going without a dinner” in chapter one of Through the Looking-Glass (1871).

Wilson’s example does not involve a punishment, but it isn’t hard to find additional 19th century examples, some of which predate Lewis Carroll.


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Monday 15 October 2018 11:50 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: http://Dictionary.com

External Email - Think Before You Click


"Without your supper" is what I remember from the early '50s.

Regional.

JL

On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 11:18 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> "When _a child_ acted up around dinnertime in the 60s, _his_ mother might
> threaten _them_ by saying, you can go to be bed without dinner. And, _they_
> might actually go to bed without dinner.
> "This phrase dates back to the popular children's book, Where the Wild
> Things Are (1963) and was an effort to teach the child not to misbehave or
> else they'd go hungry."
>
> https://www.dictionary.com/e/s/words-phrases-parents-used-cant-use-now/#go-outside-and-play<https://www.dictionary.com/e/s/words-phrases-parents-used-cant-use-now/#go-outside-and-play>
>
> Graham's Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Romance, Art, and Fashion
> https://books.google.com/books?id=uFIyAQAAMAAJ<https://books.google.com/books?id=uFIyAQAAMAAJ>
> George R. Graham, ‎Edgar Allan Poe - 1835 - ‎Read - Page 30
> LIFE—-—NOT LIKE THE ROSE-—GOING TO BED WITHOUT DINNER.
>
> I'd been under the impression that Dictionart.com<http://Dictionart.com> was a class act.
> --
> -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<http://www.americandialect.org>
>


--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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