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".