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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009Smashing
As in great. How long used that way?  SignatureRiclanders Dot Com http://riclanders.com/ > As in great. > How long used that way? Guess: British upper class, from about the 1920s? Certainly in use when I was a child (born 1939). With best wishes, Peter. SignaturePeter Young, (BrE), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004. (US equivalent: Attending Anesthesiologist) Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired. >As in great. > >How long used that way? The OED says: smashing, ppl. a.1 2. colloq. Very good; greatly pleasing; excellent; sensational. a1911 D. G. PHILLIPS Susan Lenox (1917) II. vi. 164 When you get dressed up a bit..you'll do a smashing business. 1914 W. OWEN Let. 27 Dec. (1967) 310, I come in hungry to find a smashin dinner. 1922 [see CRACK n. 1d]. 1944 M. PANETH Branch Street 8 When the children came..to play in the house they thought it smashing. .... SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.english.usage) > As in great. > > How long used that way? My problem is "smashing" works so great in the exchange below, but the exchange below takes place in 1760. Any suggestions ...? ----------------------------------> Pressing a perfumed handkerchief to his nose to protect from the dust, John Shackleton, Principal Painter in Ordinary to King George II, looked out of the coach past the rows of stacked hay to a rectangular boxlike building that looked more a barn than palace. "What … is that?” he asked. "The palace of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, sir!” said the coachman, chest puffed out, chin lifted high. "Palace?" Shackleton said, rubbing his eyes to make sure he was seeing the same thing the coachman was seeing. The coachman smiled. “Isn't she beautiful, Mr. Shackleton?” “Smashing.” “Huh?” SignatureRiclanders Dot Com http://riclanders.com/ >> As in great. >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >out of the coach past the rows of stacked hay to a rectangular boxlike >building that looked more a barn than palace. I know that hay ends up in a haystack, but is the hay in rows stacked or piled? SignatureTony Cooper - Orlando, Florida >>> As in great. >>> [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > I know that hay ends up in a haystack, but is the hay in rows stacked > or piled? Possibly stooked: http://www.autographyaerials.co.uk/media/AU_Aerials_assets/Wyddial_Stooking_2.jpg http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Heritage/Photos/Disc10/IMG0011.asp http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/VaiPion-fig-VaiPionP011f.html T. "elanders" <elanders@zoomtown.com> wrote... > As in great. > How long used that way? 60s. early 70s. Full stop. |
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