[Ads-l] Antedating of "Kick Ass"

Jonathan Lighter 00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Wed Jan 7 20:50:48 UTC 2026


Which includes "take names."

JL

On Wed, Jan 7, 2026 at 3:43 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

> HDAS has an example from John Oliver Killens's _And Then We Heard the
> Thunder_, from 1963. (Dated 1962 in HDAS.) In a WWII context.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 08:38:45PM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> > kick ass, v. (OED 1977)
> >
> > 1967 Topeka Daily Capital 14 June 8/2 (GenealogyBank)
> >
> > "You'll see," the American adviser said softly, "they're real tigers.
> They'll kick ass and take names."
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"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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