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The phrasing is grammatical within the dialects that use it but seldom used in published writing. Scholar Lawrence Horn, in a paper on the subject (1), calls this usage the "personal dative" pronomina …

The sentiment, if not the exact phrase, has occurred earlier in the 20th century. Here is Along These Streets (1942), p. 210 (Google Books), which connects the phrase to a hypothetical revolution: Th …

The short answer is that we don't know for sure. Sans serif is a compound formed in English between the long-used English preposition from French sans and serif, most likely invented by printers creat …

The short answer is that, whatever the origin, the usage tracks into racist stereotypes about Black people and for that reason should be used with great care if not avoided entirely. "Crazy" Is Connec …

The phrase arose in a transitive sense in Middle English. The Middle English Dictionary traces give up (in the entry for the verb yeven) meaning several things related to surrender: [give] up, relinq …

The Routledge Dictionary of American Slang and Unconventional English (2018) traced the phrase back to 1994: the female breasts US, 1994: One phrase sums up how I feel about them: Sweater Puppies - …

Using Eighteenth Century Collections Online (paywalled, so I'll use Google Books links), I was able to find a result written in the dedication of the 1782 book The Beauties of Sterne (referring to aut …

Is there any evidence to suggest that readers understood pick in the rhyme as steal? No. The best evidence would come from direct treatments of the poem that acknowledge the alternate reading. For ins …

The origin comes in two parts. The first part is that the phrasing is inspired by the Bible, particularly Genesis 28:12 (for stairway to heaven) and Matthew 7:13 (for highway to hell). The second part …

When was Cat-o-Nine-Tails first used? The earliest instance for a proximity search of cat, nine, and tails in Early English Books Online is in The English rogue described, in the life of Meriton Latro …

"I'll be dipped," or the less polite "I'll be dipped in shit," meaning "I'm surprised," is most likely from the American South. One commentator, Sadie Smith, gives her personal experience in the Paris …

To your first question, the original context would have been legal, and I can find attestation for the exact phrase and similar phrases in the 1960s. A collocation search in the Corpus of Historical A …

The association between primrose and pleasure comes from its status as an early spring flower, and that flower's association with maidens and pleasure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the …

There is a gross rule that will help you understand usages like this in early English literature: If a body fluid is mentioned alongside or in place of an emotion, assume that they (a) literally …

The earliest text I can find using the expression dates to 1758, in "Extract of a Letter from Albany, August 14, 1758" in the August 21, 1758 edition of the New-York Gazette, or the Weekly Post-Boy, a …