[Ads-l] chow[-]down, interj., n., v.i., v.t.

[Mark Mandel]

With two very different argument structures for the v.t.: 1945 vs. 1950 and
1951. 'Minds me of Damon Knight's classic sf story "To Serve Man
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man>".

On Sun, Mar 15, 2020, 8:51 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Early exx. Details in HDAS I.
>
>
>
> 1934 _Nashville Tennessean_ (Dec. 2) (TVA Section) 6:  The kind of a room
> where construction men used to wait for the call, "Chow down."
>
>
> 1935 _Springfield [Mass.] Republican_ (Aug. 20) 4:  During Naval Reserve
> Cruise ..."Caulking-off" after "chow -down" or in plain English, taking it
> easy after lunch.
>
>
> 1942 Times-Picayune [N.O.]_ (Aug. 3) 10:  The cry of "chow down" carries
> the same meaning for the enlisted men that "Dinner is served, sir," has for
> the officers.
>
>
> 1945 _Knoxville [Tenn.] News-Sentinel_ (Oct. 7, 1945) 13:  We plan to serve
> you in the same way our men are "chowed down."
>
>
> 1950 _Oregonian_ [Portland] (Dec. 5) 9: So we chowed down some chow.
>
>
> 1951 _Seattle Sunday Times_ (Jan. 19) 51: The visit was topped off by
> "chowing down" in the enlisted men's mess.
>
>
> 1962 _Augusta [Ga.] Chronicle_  (July 22) 15: The two senators literally
> chowed-down on the watermelons.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> "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
>

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