Just came back from Left Coast Crime "Trouble in Tucson" conference, where I had a wonderful time. Kudos to the conference organizers and volunteers and a special whoop and holler to all the "Lefty" winners and finalists! 👏 👍 It was great to catch up with people I know from the mystery world, and to meet and chat with new readers and writers. (My TBR pile underwent a major expansion due to this trip!) I'm back home now and whew! I'm all done in.
Which leads to the Slang-o-rama post of the week...
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Done in, meaning "exhausted, very tired," dates from early 1900s, according to my hardcover copy of The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer (copyright 1997... yeah, I've had this a while!). Turning to the internet, I found an entry on Green's Dictionary of Slang (which is quite an awesome reference for all things slang, btw), which included the following definitions for done in, and different dates for their first appearance.
- very tired, exhausted (also done out): 1900
- beyond further effort: 1912
- dead: 1916
- intoxicated by a drug: 2013
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| Feeling done in: Shall I do the laundry or make a bowl of popcorn and binge on Netflix? John Singer Sargent, Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911, National Gallery of Art |
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2 comments:
This reminds me of a cross-country trip my wife and I made many years ago. We stopped one evening at a diner somewhere in Mississippi after a long day's drive. The waitress remarked to my wife: "Honey, you look about give out." We've used that expression ever since when exhaustion was the subject.
Hi John!
I love your story and that expression, which is new to me. It took a little digging, but thanks to Google Ngram, I found "about give out" as a common variation to "about to give out" in "The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms" by Robert Hendrickson. The link is a long one (sorry about that!): https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Facts_on_File_Dictionary_of_American/yXY0yQnvmmUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22about%20give%20out%22
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment! :-)
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