Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 January 23

= January 23 =

"I'll get me coat"
The above phrase is a well-known British saying, used when the speaker realizes he has said something embarrassing or inappropriate and wishes to extricate himself from the conversation. It gained wide currency due to its use as a catchphrase on the TV show The Fast Show, but was it in use before that? No references to web pages or forum threads, please – I've seen them all. --Viennese Waltz 09:08, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * See English personal pronouns, which has an explanation of the (mainly) British use of of the object pronoun "me" as a possessive pronoun; this is limited AFAIK only to using "me" instead of "my", as other forms (He'll get him coat, You'll get you coat, They'll get them coat) are marked and not well known. -- Jayron 32 12:06, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but you misunderstood my question. I'm not asking about the non-standard use of the word "me" for "my", I'm asking whether the use of the phrase "I'll get me [or "my", for that matter] coat" in the context I mentioned predates The Fast Show. --Viennese Waltz 12:32, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the article you've mentioned points out: "A non-standard variant of my (particularly in British dialects) is me". BTW, Scots tend to pronounce "my coat" as /məi ko:t/, which may sound - to non-Scottish ears - as "me coat" (I suspect, though, that none of the actors in The Fast Show are Scottish). Anyways, the phrase "I'll get my coat", meaning "I'll leave" - in the context mentioned by Viennese Waltz, seems to have been used before The Fast Show, e.g. in 1985, and in 1992. HOTmag (talk) 12:23, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but those examples you gave don't seem to fit the context exactly. The characters say "I'll get my coat" because they want to leave, or they realize the necessity of leaving. The use of the phrase in The Fast Show is different. Essentially, the character is saying something like "I've messed up here, I'm going to leave to save myself from further embarrassment". The notion of embarrassment is key. Example . --Viennese Waltz 12:50, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Surely that was the invention, by simple repeated association, of the Mark Williams character in The Fast Show? There is also the reciprocal. related phrase (used more in the North of England?) of "get your coat... you're pulled". Martinevans123 (talk)
 * , that is precisely the question Viennese Waltz is asking for references for. --ColinFine (talk) 15:24, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, a prior reference might prove that the meaning wasn't invented by the show. The lack of a reference can't provide it was invented there, although a reliable source saying it was might help. It's just my personal feeling that the show invented that new meaning. I expect the show's writters would probably have a view on this. Martinevans123 (talk) 15:32, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
 * I haven't found anything either. A slightly similar phrase is "I'll hold your coat" (the linked source says 1940s, but I remember it in the 1970s too). It means "If you want to get into a fight, go ahead but don't involve me". Alansplodge (talk) 18:37, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Good call, Alan. But I'm getting a bit uneasy about the way this thread is now turning out. I do hope no-one links to this. Martinevans123 (talk) 18:44, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
 * 1) I'm on the other side of the Atlantic and 2) I've never seen or even heard of this show before reading this discussion, but I seem to recall hearing "I'll get my coat" in just such a situation (and KNOW that I heard the analogous form "I'll just show myself out") long before this show ever aired. I think the best that could be said is that it popularized the saying in the UK. --Khajidha (talk) 14:18, 28 January 2019 (UTC)