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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I am reading a novel in which a character says of another that he didn’t have much socked away. A quick check of Merriam-Webster online shows its first recorded use in 1942. It’s a fairly common expression, but is it the original or does it stem from “stock”?
And, if stock is the original (to stock up on supplies), then is sock an eggcorn, perhaps derived from the image of a person putting money away or hiding money or other valuables in a sock?
Any thoughts? I did a quick search and did not find this, but I’m increasingly surprised when I contribute something truly original. :-) Since it has a dictionary entry now, it must be fairly mainstream. But was it (in its day, before mainstreaming) an eggcorn?
Feeling quite combobulated.
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Well, without doing any research, I’m wondering whether you should turn it around. I’ve heard people talk about having money “socked away” for years, but I’ve never noticed “stocked away” before. My spider sense is tingling—I’m looking at 5000 rghits for “stocked away,” and thinking you might have found a big-number eggcorn. A books.google.com search might be a good place to look next—removing all the serial hits, of course.
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The OED suggests that the verb sense of sock (away) is derived from the noun sense – the one that is more or less synonymous with stocking. That sounds to me like support for JonW719’s “hiding money or other valuables in a sock” analysis.
sock v.5 2. colloq. (orig. U.S.). To put (money) aside as savings. Also with away.
[etymology: f. SOCK n.1 2.]
..
sock n.1 2. a. A short stocking covering the foot and usually reaching to the calf of the leg; half-hose; also, = ankle sock
..
(b) Slang and colloq. phrases: in one’s socks, as a condition of measurement of stature; = in one’s stockings s.v. STOCKING n. 5a (cf. in one’s shoes s.v. SHOE n. 2c); to knock the socks off (someone), and varr. (U.S.): to beat thoroughly, to trounce; similarly to rot the socks off; to pull one’s socks up: to make an effort, to pull oneself together; to put a sock in it: to stop speaking or making a noise, to shut up; to ‘stop it’; usu. in imp.; old socks (orig. N. Amer.): a familiar form of address.
I did a Google Book search for stock away limited to books published in or before 1942, when the earliest citation of sock away appeared. There are 636 raw hits for “stock away”; the first ten are references to livestock or to financial equities. That is, the cooccurrence is accidental, not part of a set phrase.
HERDING STOCK AWAY FROM DANGEROUS AREAS. Attention has already been called to the possibilities of avoiding poisoning plants by judicious herding.
Bulletin No. 1-29, United States Division of Botany, 1901
This witness further testified that 117 head were turned over to plaintiff; that 5 head had perished in a storm, the 1st of May, of those originally inspected; and that, after plaintiff had taken stock away, there were 15 left on the farm
The Northwestern Reporter, West Publishing Company, 1890
and if I keep that stock till it rise in the market to be worth 59 pounds; and if you then come to me and take the stock away from me, and give me only 46 pounds for it
Cobbett’s Political Register, William Cobbett, 1826
Curtis and Thomas, nor anyone acting for them or either of them have not taken said stock away . . . and that said stock now remains on file in said district court
United States Supreme Court Reports, 1921
So, stock away does not appear to have been a common phrase for saving prior to the coining of sock away (though, of course, I may have missed some). The reshaping seems to be in the direction that Pat suggests.
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