![]() ![]() And my hypothesis is that its popularity sprang from another, similar sounding expression, done and dusted, which I covered in this blog in 2015: My sense is that this second meaning of done and done took hold after the turn of the 21st century and has really taken off in the last few years. The anger and hurt that only a few hours before had been sharp and deep had dulled.” Wiktionary’s first citation for it is a short story called “A Natural Notion,” by David Seybold, included in the 1985 book Seasons of the Hunter: An Anthology, edited by Seybold and Robert Elman: “Done and done, he said to himself. ![]() From James Fenimore Cooper’s The Crater (1848): “Done and done between gentlemen, is enough, sir.”īut the current use of the expression has a different meaning - “Done thoroughly and satisfactorily,” as Wiktionary puts it. Hence “done and done” meant that a binding agreement had been mutually accepted.Ī half century after Edgeworth’s book, the expression seems to have become established, as well as crossed the Atlantic. … it seems that the usual convention was that a bet was agreed on the mere word of the two principals if both said “done.” They both being gentlemen, or assumed to be such, their word was their bond and there was no question of going back on the agreement once it had been made. World Wide Words explains that tester is “a slang term for sixpence” and gauger “an exciseman’s assistant who checked the capacity of casks.” It goes on: The website World Wide Words investigated the expression in 2004 and found an appearance in the novel Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth, published in 1800: “‘Done,’ says my master ‘I’ll lay you a hundred golden guineas to a tester you don’t.’ ‘Done,’ says the gauger and done and done’s enough between two gentlemen.” But it was used as early as 1712, when, as Richard Bleiler of the University of Connecticut has discovered, in “Whig and Tory: or, Wit on both Sides”: The expression doesn’t appear in the Oxford English Dictionary or Green’s Dictionary of Slang. These and other examples comprise two categories: cases where more than one task has been completed (so that the first “done” refers to one thing and the second another), and cases where it’s just one task (in which the second “done” is rhetorically redundant). ![]() In January, the New York Times television critic James Poniewozik wrote about Donald Trump’s reality-TV-style approach to the issues of the day: “And what does ‘ending conflict of interest’ look like? A lawyer says the word ‘trust’ a bunch of times, and there’s a big pile of documents. If this were yesterday, they’d own a bid to the NCAA Tournament, all done and done.” – The Princeton University basketball team owns “the spotless 14-0 conference record, and a 17-game winning streak.The opportunity to extend the pastel world is so exciting for us.” –Poppy James, of luggage maker Pop+Suki, in Teen Vogue “Pink suitcases that could fit everything and still be light - done and done.Done and done.” – article on The Ringer about putting giant animals into classic movies. “First, duh, we just replace the iceberg that the Titanic crashed into with a giant, ocean-based creature.Done and done.” – Destructoid, on a game called Steep. You get in, you hopefully have a good time, and you get out. “I also believe it’s a particularly good match for the free-weekend treatment.Going to Google News, I find these examples just in the last 10 days: The truth is, the expression, indicating a task accomplished, did have a bit of a familiar ring to it. She answered, “Done and done.” I was like, “Wait - what and what?” I texted my wife the other day asking whether she had walked the dog. But it relates to a Britishism, so I reproduce below my post on “done and done” from the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Lingua Franca blog: I hasten to say this is not a Britishism, at least in the way it’s currently used in the U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |