The protagonist of my Silver Rush series, Inez Stannert, has been known to give the cold shoulder to those who deserve it (and even to a few who do not!). So, was she acting in her timeframe (1880s) when exhibiting this display of contempt?
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Well, of course she was! According to American Slang, 2nd Edition by Robert L. Chapman and Barbara Ann Kipfer, cold shoulder as a noun phrase was in use by 1816, well before Inez was born. Defined as "a deliberate snub; display of chilly contempt," cold shoulder also became a verb form by 1845.
The Phrase Finder has a few words to say about this phrase:
The origin of this expression which is often repeated is that visitors to a house who were welcome were given a hot meal but those who weren't were offered only "cold shoulder of mutton." This is repeated in several etymological texts, including Hendrickson's usually reliable Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. There's no evidence to support this view though and it appears to be an example of folk etymology.
The post goes on to note that the first printed reference appears in Sir Walter Scott's 1816 The Antiquary, a "novel of manners," as follows:
The Countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther.
And hey, hey! You can download The Antiquary in an ebook format of your choice from Project Gutenberg. You can even listen to an audiobook version, courtesy of LibriVox.
What else can I say besides... (here it comes).... Great Scott!
(Thanks goes to Susan Knilans for suggesting cold shoulder as a Slang-o-rama topic.)
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| An elegant "cold shoulder." (I love this portrait!) Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) By John Singer Sargent This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56723870 |
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