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Here's an example:

'As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it? say?'

From Harper's Weekly, 7 October 1871

I also recall watching cartoon gangsters, from Looney Toons using this. For the longest time I thought they were saying "see?"

What is the origin of this postscript to gangster-spoken sentences?

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  • "What say you?"
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Sep 17, 2017 at 1:15
  • What makes you think this relates only to gangsters and cartoons?
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 18:26
  • Did I say this effect is only in gangsters and cartoons and not in anything else? Do I need to enumerate all other occurrences of this phenomenon before asking the question?
    – xdavidliu
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 19:25

1 Answer 1

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According to the OED (and you can see this page for free), this usage is "originally and chiefly N. American". The first quote it cites is in Domestic Manners Of The Americans (1832), which I think refers to this:

What is it, man? say.

It can also start a sentence, as OED lists in subsequent entries:

Say—d'you run with our machine?
— Lantern (N.Y., 1852)

Here's another example from 1857:

"Say! What are you laughing at? I only did it for fun."
— The Bay-path: A Tale of New England Colonial Life

However, I think the gangster association comes from the 1920s, based on this Huffington Post article:

In the 1920s, gangsters like Jack McGurn - Al Capone’s main assassin and general of his troops - would begin many sentences with “Say.” For example: “Say, what’s the beef?” Or, “Say, I wasn’t anywhere near the place. See?” Say and see were like bookends to the street comment.
— Hipster Language: How To Talk Like A 20s Gangster

As you can see, you didn't mishear; gangsters also say "see". For example, in the 1931 movie Little Caesar: "You're hangin' around with me, see?"

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  • 1
    Logically, 'say' would be used with questions, and 'see' with declarations.
    – AmI
    Commented Sep 16, 2018 at 16:09
  • This answer does really not explain the origin of this usage (how it is related to the more central uses of say); it merely confirms that it has been around for some time.
    – jsw29
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 17:34
  • The one quoted by the OP is really off. This answer is how this "say" works. But at the end, it has to be written like this: "What you going to do about it, say?"
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 18:28

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