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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I just ran across the phrase
You may not be shot of me yet
and thought, oh, an eggcorn for “be shut ofâ€. Turns out both have been around a long time:
Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett (1848) – [ Traducir esta página ] To be shut of, or to get shut of, signifies to be or to get rid of. We also say, to be or get shot of. The expression is common in England.
and though I don’t remember hearing or seeing the “shot†version before, it is much more common on the Internet. Live and learn.
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Anyhow, it would seem likely that at some point one of them was an eggcorn for the other. A bolt that has been shot, or something on the other side of a door that has been shut, are both out of sight and mind—you are effectively rid of them.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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Strangely enough I made a note last week about ‘get shut of’ as a possible eggcorn of ‘get shot of’ but hadn’t got around to doing anything about it. The former sounds as odd to my ear as the latter obviously does to yours. I’m trying, but I can’t get the shut variant to do much. If I had to guess – which is what I’m doing I suppose – I’d imagine the origin of the expression to have originated in the conversion of lead into shot via a shot tower or its subsequent explosive departure via a shotgun cartridge.
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I always have had the picture in my mind, for “be shut of him†of “him†being separated from me by a shut door: the process of getting shut of him would be the process of putting him on the other side of that door and shutting it.
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When I ran across “get shot of†I immediately thought of “him†as a crossbow bolt. Once I have shot it, it is gone. Not sure why a cross-bow rather than a regular bow, or a gun—something about the era of history that I must have the expression associated with?? Tied in with the (archaic?) phrase of having shot your bolt? Anyhow, fwtw those were my “picturesâ€, and I would expect others’ to be different.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-05-05 09:54:16)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I remember hearing “Be shot of” rather frequently in the mountains of East Tennessee during my youth. Many unique (and fast disappearing) Eastern Tennessee words and phrases are taken directly from the Geordi dialect of Northern England, and I suspect “be shot of” is one of those. Of course it means “be done with” or “be rid of” in a not-too-nice way, such as “I’ll be shot of that lying man if he does that again!” or “I’ll be shot of that dog if he kills another chicken”
Last edited by instarx (2009-05-07 22:21:02)
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Instarx – ‘get/be shot of’ could well be used by Geordies but I’ve heard it used in other parts of the UK too. I’ve had to look up Eastern Tennessee and it seems to be an Appalachian dialect retaining Scots-Irish and Anglo-Scottish elements. All of the latter would have been heavily influenced by if not actually based upon Northumbrian English, which is where the Geordie reference would come in I suppose, but ‘Geordie’ speech belongs to the banks of the river Tyne only. The Southern English tend to call everyone from Durham or Northumberland ‘Geordies’ but folk in Sunderland for example (only 10 miles from Newcastle) would vehemently deny the label. I’d be very interested in hearing of any further words or phrases which you think might have some connection.
(During my quick delve into this I found a site – http://www.lowlands-l.net/ – which should prove of interest to any forum regulars.)
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Peter,
I first heard of Geordi when a co-worker gave me a small book of “Geordi Talk”, or “How to Speak Geordi” when I was in Newcastle about ten years ago. I was struck by how many Geordi phrases were things I had heard growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee. It was funny – you could almost rename it “How to Speak Hillbilly” You don’t hear too much Hillbilly (or Geordi) in the mountains these days except by real country people, of which there are still some around. TV, unfortunatly, is the great leveler of regional dialect.
I’ll look online and see if I can find a viewable copy of the book, and if so I will post the ones I remember hearing from the mountain-folk.
James
Last edited by instarx (2009-07-11 20:20:02)
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