When was the expression “or something” first used?
Is there evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1919 including in England, and what is the earliest attestation 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. Curious about the existence of an under-researched "Old Worldian English' (poetic compared to "Late Modern English" with poetic oddities like 'joyful strains' in Advance Australia Fair. OldWorld in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the specified era, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com 40 mins ago
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
add a comment |
Is there evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1919 including in England, and what is the earliest attestation 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. Curious about the existence of an under-researched "Old Worldian English' (poetic compared to "Late Modern English" with poetic oddities like 'joyful strains' in Advance Australia Fair. OldWorld in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the specified era, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com 40 mins ago
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
yesterday
add a comment |
Is there evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1919 including in England, and what is the earliest attestation 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. Curious about the existence of an under-researched "Old Worldian English' (poetic compared to "Late Modern English" with poetic oddities like 'joyful strains' in Advance Australia Fair. OldWorld in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the specified era, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
Is there evidence of sentences ending with "or something" recorded ANYWHERE from 1800-1919 including in England, and what is the earliest attestation 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. Curious about the existence of an under-researched "Old Worldian English' (poetic compared to "Late Modern English" with poetic oddities like 'joyful strains' in Advance Australia Fair. OldWorld in Australia is a poetic term for the art style of postcards, sepia tone photographs, newspaper fonts, book covers, etc of the specified era, as in the real estate expression "old world charm".
etymology phrase-origin
etymology phrase-origin
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
edited 5 mins ago
Laurel
32k660113
32k660113
asked 2 days ago
Brendan
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com 40 mins ago
This question came from our site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory.
migrated from linguistics.stackexchange.com 40 mins ago
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
yesterday
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
yesterday
"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
yesterday
"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
yesterday
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
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 2 days ago
jknappenjknappen
1316
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "97"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f483401%2fwhen-was-the-expression-or-something-first-used%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
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 2 days ago
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 2 days ago
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 2 days ago
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 2 days ago
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered 2 days ago
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered 2 days ago
jknappenjknappen
1316
answered 2 days ago
jknappenjknappen
1316
1316
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language & Usage Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fenglish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f483401%2fwhen-was-the-expression-or-something-first-used%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
"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
yesterday