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So I've always been bad at understanding dialogue from TV shows. Here's a line from S1E1 of Deadwood; (it is not a spoiler). The setting is American Western expansion in 1876. There's two characters, Seth and Sol, who just moved out to a lawless town, Deadwood. It's basically the middle of the night, they have a bunch of hardware to sell, there's commotion up and down the street, mainly due to other sellers hawking their goods.

Before they go out and open up shop, Sol tells Seth (who seems somewhat uneasy about the whole situation):

Sol: (To Seth. Sol and Seth are preparing to open for business.) It ain't like somethin's bein' foisted on 'em, they'll be sorry they bought come sun up.

Seth: I know that.

I know what foisted means: forcibly imposing something unwelcome on another person. Seth and Sol aren't foisting anything on their customers, as their customers have to willingly make the purchase. But what does it mean that "they'll be sorry they bought come sun up"? Is he saying that others will be sorry they waited until sun up to buy the wares (perhaps they'll be out)? That doesn't seem quite right to me. Kinda confused.

Here's some more context if that helps:

Guy: (To people walking by in the street) Hand made! It's all hand made, guaranteed!

Sol: (To Seth. Sol and Seth are preparing to open for business.) It ain't like somethin's bein' foisted on 'em, they'll be sorry they bought come sun up.

Seth: I know that.

Sol: These are quality items. They meet these folks' needs. They're bein' offered at fair markup, and we're announcing their availability.

Seth: Got through Indian country, figures into the markup.

Sol: By us, at personal peril.

Seth: Let's go.

Sol: Comin' out with your fly down might strike the wrong note.

(Seth looks down. His fly is fine.)

Seth: (To people walking by in the street) Come have a look, boys. Star and Bullock Hardware and Mercantile just opened for bidness. We got boots to sell ya.

(People continue to walk by.)

Sol: Knee boots $10! Hip boots 15!

Seth: We got picks, pans, and shovels.

Sol: Picks at $12, shovels at 10 and pans at 8!

(A few people stop.)

Seth: We got plaster cradles, prospector's best friend.

Sol: Perfected at the Montana strikes!

Seth: We got chamber pots to sell ya. And if you don't know what one of those is, the man livin' next to you will appreciate your findin' out.

Guy1: I'll look at your biggest size hip boot.

Sol: (Leading Guy1 into the tent to look at the boots) Got 'em right here.

Seth: We stand by our stock. Any item that don't do what it's supposed to will be exchanged for one that does. And we'll be here for you to find us.

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    Come sun up means at sunrise. Our stuff's better so they will be sorry. Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 3:44
  • @YosefBaskin Ah so "they'll be sorry they bought come sun up" means that they'll be sorry they bought wares from others. How does that square with the first half of the sentence? Sol seems to be saying that him and Seth aren't foisting anything on people -- or is he talking about the other sellers on the street.
    – Vasting
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 3:54
  • Can you say what "I've always been bad at understanding dialogue from TV shows…" means? Do you have a hearing problem, or find English difficult, or is there a third option? Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 18:34
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    Don't you think "… come sun-up" changes nothing, and all that matters is "they'll be sorry they bought…"? The possibility anyone is saying others might be sorry they waited until sun-up to buy the wares suggests that the problem is your understanding of English. Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 18:41
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    "come sun up" is "cowboy talk" for "in the morning". Say we were out drinking. I might say to you "You'll be sorry you drank so much whisky, come sun up!" That's all it is. FYI you can use the excellent ELL site for simple misunderstanding questions.
    – Fattie
    Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 11:20

3 Answers 3

17

As YB noted in a comment above, "come sun up" means "at sunrise". I think that there are two likely meanings:

  1. The meaning of the comma is "and". In that case, "it ain't like somethin's bein' foisted on 'em" and "it ain't like . . . they'll be sorry they bought" at sunrise.

  2. "They'll be sorry they bought come sun up" could be a relative clause, with the relativizer omitted (where the comma is), as Jim has suggested in a comment below.

In either case, Sol is claiming that he and Seth are engaging in fair trade with their customers.

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    I read the comma as “that”: foisted on ‘em that they will be sorry they bought in the morning
    – Jim
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 6:00
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    I feel like it parses more easily if the comma is simply left out. "It ain't like somethin's bein' foisted on 'em they'll be sorry they bought come sun up."
    – JamieB
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 18:02
  • @Jim Your "that" appears to mean "so that". I can't recall ever seeing a comma with that meaning before. Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 18:44
  • @MarcInManhattan - Yeah I don’t mean it literally, I mean “replace the comma with ‘that’ and the sentence will carry the intended meaning.” I don’t think it’s “so that” just “that”: It ain’t like it’s something that they will be sorry they bought…
    – Jim
    Commented Oct 25, 2022 at 18:59
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    Guys, it's a script for reading. There is no meaningful punctuation, it's all in the delivery.
    – Fattie
    Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 11:21
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I just watched the scene in question (at 22:10 in the episode), and in context “they'll be sorry they bought come sun up”, seems to modify “something”. (I wouldn’t have used a comma in the script, but it’s also there in the subtitles)

As Jim said in their comment, you could replace the comma with “that”, with the meaning being “We are not pushing goods onto our customers that they’ll regret buying tomorrow”.

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It means "It's not like we're pushing them to buy something, the purchase of which they will regret in the morning".

The line would read better as, "It ain't like somethin's bein' foisted on 'em that they'll be sorry they bought come sun up."

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  • Whether a line of speech with 'them that they' in succession is better is rather subjective - the original scans much more naturally to me - even if it is clearer when written down. Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 13:06

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