[Ads-l] "Ticked off"; was Re: Punchline: A thing up with which I will not put (July 31, 1941)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

I suspected that the phrase “ticked off” might confuse readers, so I
included the pertinent definition in the QI article when I added the
1941 citation. I apologize for not including this with the ADS post.

[Begin excerpt]
The phrase “ticked off” in the passage below meant “scolded”.
[End excerpt]

I came to the same conclusion as LH.

Garson

On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 2:41 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Actually there's a British military "tick off" (akin to "tell off", and
> presumably alluding to marking a demerit) going back to WWI that I suspect
> is the relevant one in the Sussex narrative. The OED describes this sense
> as
> *3c.* To reprimand or scold.
> 1915   W. Owen *Let.* 2 Nov. (1967) 365   He has been ‘ticked-off’ four or
> five times for it; but is not yet shot at dawn.
> and distinguishes it from the U.S. slang sense
> *3d.* To annoy, anger; to dispirit. Cf. ticked adj.2 c
> <https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/201737#eid18371816>. *U.S.* *slang*.
> 1975   *Washington Post* 19 Feb. c 12/7   We got hit somethin' fierce. It
> really ticked me off! We lost everything!
> Hopefully, the prepositional culprit "junior" wasn't scolded as severely as
> the miscreant in the Wilfred Owen passage, or at least was also not shot at
> dawn for it.
>
> LH
>
> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 2:25 PM Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > What's really curious to me about this is "ticked off" (for "angered" or
> > "irritated") in a British publication in 1941. I would have thought that an
> > American expression, especially given that "tick" is often used in British
> > English for what Americans call "check mark", and "ticked off" thus more
> > often means "checked off", as on a list.  The British publication putting
> > it in quotation marks suggests it was seen as slangish or non-native, so
> > maybe it was borrowed from American military lingo?  There were American
> > and partly-American volunteer forces in the UK by at least as early as
> > 1940; the US began officially supplying aid to the UK in March 1941.
> >
> > On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 1:49 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> > adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > > [ref] 1941 July 31, The West Sussex Gazette, Our Comment and Gossip:
> > > Things in General, Quote Page 4, Column 2, Sussex, England. (British
> > > Newspaper Archive) [/ref]
> > >
> > > [Begin excerpt]
> > > The story is told of an English master from a high school who was
> > > called up, received a commission, and found himself in official
> > > correspondence over military matters with a superior officer. The
> > > superior, who was something of a martinet, precise in matters of
> > > composition, "ticked off" his junior for ending a sentence with a
> > > preposition.
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > [...]
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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