When was the expression “or something” first used?
What evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1900 including in England, and what are the earliest written attestations during the 19th century in any of the U.S, England or Australia?
For example, after a road rage incident someone might say: "Were you TRYING to hit me or something?"
I need to know for dialogue in creative writing whether it's believable and not using too much creative licence. I couldn't find anything helpful from a Google search because of difficulty wording the search for search results. I'd be amazed and grateful if I can get a rough 'timeline' of notable uses such as 1800's books. "Old Worldian English' (Neo-Victorian) to my ear sounds poetic compared to "Late Modern English" and is used to great effect in Advance Australia Fair. "Old World" in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the era 1800-1930-ish, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com Jan 30 at 1:55
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
add a comment |
What evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1900 including in England, and what are the earliest written attestations during the 19th century in any of the U.S, England or Australia?
For example, after a road rage incident someone might say: "Were you TRYING to hit me or something?"
I need to know for dialogue in creative writing whether it's believable and not using too much creative licence. I couldn't find anything helpful from a Google search because of difficulty wording the search for search results. I'd be amazed and grateful if I can get a rough 'timeline' of notable uses such as 1800's books. "Old Worldian English' (Neo-Victorian) to my ear sounds poetic compared to "Late Modern English" and is used to great effect in Advance Australia Fair. "Old World" in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the era 1800-1930-ish, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com Jan 30 at 1:55
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28
add a comment |
What evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1900 including in England, and what are the earliest written attestations during the 19th century in any of the U.S, England or Australia?
For example, after a road rage incident someone might say: "Were you TRYING to hit me or something?"
I need to know for dialogue in creative writing whether it's believable and not using too much creative licence. I couldn't find anything helpful from a Google search because of difficulty wording the search for search results. I'd be amazed and grateful if I can get a rough 'timeline' of notable uses such as 1800's books. "Old Worldian English' (Neo-Victorian) to my ear sounds poetic compared to "Late Modern English" and is used to great effect in Advance Australia Fair. "Old World" in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the era 1800-1930-ish, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
What evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1900 including in England, and what are the earliest written attestations during the 19th century in any of the U.S, England or Australia?
For example, after a road rage incident someone might say: "Were you TRYING to hit me or something?"
I need to know for dialogue in creative writing whether it's believable and not using too much creative licence. I couldn't find anything helpful from a Google search because of difficulty wording the search for search results. I'd be amazed and grateful if I can get a rough 'timeline' of notable uses such as 1800's books. "Old Worldian English' (Neo-Victorian) to my ear sounds poetic compared to "Late Modern English" and is used to great effect in Advance Australia Fair. "Old World" in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the era 1800-1930-ish, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
etymology phrase-origin
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
edited 39 mins ago
Brendan
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
asked Jan 27 at 11:02
BrendanBrendan
113
113
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com Jan 30 at 1:55
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com Jan 30 at 1:55
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28
add a comment |
"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28
"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28
"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28
add a comment |
1 Answer
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Your intuition that ending a sentence with "or something ." is rather modern is confirmed by the following query to Google ngrams: It was certainly used in 1800, but only rarely, and it took off in the last quarter of the 19th century. For a more detailed search, some of the available corpora of Late Modern English (e.g., CLMET3.1 may help you finding quotations and judging their "notability".
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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Your intuition that ending a sentence with "or something ." is rather modern is confirmed by the following query to Google ngrams: It was certainly used in 1800, but only rarely, and it took off in the last quarter of the 19th century. For a more detailed search, some of the available corpora of Late Modern English (e.g., CLMET3.1 may help you finding quotations and judging their "notability".
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
add a comment |
Your intuition that ending a sentence with "or something ." is rather modern is confirmed by the following query to Google ngrams: It was certainly used in 1800, but only rarely, and it took off in the last quarter of the 19th century. For a more detailed search, some of the available corpora of Late Modern English (e.g., CLMET3.1 may help you finding quotations and judging their "notability".
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
add a comment |
Your intuition that ending a sentence with "or something ." is rather modern is confirmed by the following query to Google ngrams: It was certainly used in 1800, but only rarely, and it took off in the last quarter of the 19th century. For a more detailed search, some of the available corpora of Late Modern English (e.g., CLMET3.1 may help you finding quotations and judging their "notability".
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
Your intuition that ending a sentence with "or something ." is rather modern is confirmed by the following query to Google ngrams: It was certainly used in 1800, but only rarely, and it took off in the last quarter of the 19th century. For a more detailed search, some of the available corpora of Late Modern English (e.g., CLMET3.1 may help you finding quotations and judging their "notability".
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered Jan 27 at 21:17
jknappenjknappen
1316
1316
add a comment |
add a comment |
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"Old Worldian English" isn't underresearched. IN fact, the history of the English language is extremely well-researched and there are tons of publications on all levels from Grammars, dictionaries and textbooks to research journal articles on Early and Late Modern English, Middle English, and Old English. Few other languages are researched in a comparable depth.
– jknappen
Jan 28 at 9:28