[Ads-l] Here goes nothing!

[Jonathan Lighter]

A little earlier, from Newspapers.com:

1879 _Fall River Daily Herald_ (June 21) 4:  If I possessed some of the
insane ideas to which you gave utterance, I would tie a stone around my
neck and jump into the river, my last words to be, "here goes nothing."

On Sun, Aug 14, 2022 at 4:19 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I hadn't met this in decades till I heard a middle-aged fellow in a TV
> commercial say it before giving himself a home cardiogram.
>
> Not in OED - except in a 2008 quote for "Gadsbudlikins!"
>
> 1880  _Cincinnati Commercial Tribune_  (Dec. 17) 8: Go down and jump off
> the bridge then, and cry out, "Here goes nothing!"
>
> 1885   _Washington [D.C.] Bee_ (July 11) 2: The best thing such an one
> could do would be to go to the wharf, tie a rock around his neck, cry out
> "Here goes nothing!" and jump over-board.
>
>
> Exx. before 1927 are uniformly in reference to the last words of those who
> commit suicide, mostly by jumping into water. This is the seemingly
> earliest exx. *not* connected with a suicide, though it still involves
> water:
>
> 1927 _Seattle Daily Times_ (June 17) 19: At Cape Race, we took a last look
> at the American continent. Then "here goes nothing," we said to each other,
> and started out [by air] over the big pond with "next station" Europe.
>
> I associate it solely with taking a long chance on something that may be
> foolish, difficult, unpleasant, dangerous, etc.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


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

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