----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 7:07 PM
Subject: untranslateable phrases
> Or, j'en ai marre, j'en ai ras-le-bol (or just ras).
>
> But it was a serious question about the history of what I assume are
> Americanisms. Really. Robin?
>
> Mark
I think the two phrases -- "I've had it" and "I bought a farm" -- are
pretty much independent.
I chased the "bought a farm" idiom once, and as I remember it, it seems to
emerge in WW1, possibly the American flying corps. Maybe someone was
thinking of Thomas Hardy's "Drummer Hodge" -- 'Yet portion of that unknown
plain / Will Hodge forever be" -- or Rupert Brooke's reworking in "The
Soldier" sonnet. Though probably not.
As to "I've had it," without looking it up (and I'm currently far off from
my dictionaries) I don't know whether it would be a contraction of "I've had
it up to the back teeth", or whether that is an expansion of the idiom you
cite.
If there is a link, think of mibbe "I bought a packet" or "I've bought it."
Sorry not to be of more help.
Robin
ADDITION:
Quoth the Random House Dictionary of American Slang, vol.1 A-G (which I do
have to hand):
"Bought it" is WWI RAF slang, and "bought a farm" evolves from this, more
specifically US, with the earliest reference given as 1954 -- predominantly
USAF, meaning: "(of a pilot or airplane) to crash."
R
>>That should be "je n'en peut plus supporter," natch. Way rusty in French.
>>
>>
>>>Well, meaningless if translated directly, though there are ways to say
>>>them in the argot of other languages.
>>>
>>>I'm curious about the origins of:
>>>
>>>I've had it (je l'ai tenue?), in both its meanings--I can't put up with
>>>any more of this (je ne peut plus supporter ceci), and I've bought the
>>>farm (j'ai achete la ferme)
>>>
>>>I've been had (j'ai ete eu?)
>>>
>>>Mark
>>
>
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