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3. According to Word Detective, go spare originally meant be made redundant, and the anger was a secondary effect:-. The original sense of “go spare,” when it first appeared in British slang in the 1940s, was “to be or become unemployed,” making it a close cousin of the more formal British euphemism for being laid off, “to be made ...
Apr 3, 2024 · The term 'spare' has intriguing origins in British slang, evolving from its literal meaning to embody a unique cultural significance. You'll find its journey through the linguistic evolution fascinating, as it's not just a story of how a word changes, but also how it reflects the cultural shifts and attitudes of a society.
I've searched but can't find an exact origin for the anger meaning of this phrase. I've seen speculative references to the emotion associated with early recorded uses of the phrase to mean 'be made redundant' in 1940s Britain. Also oblique references to 'going spare' meaning an excess of emotion (such as anger).
Jan 12, 2023 · A term for a common ballpoint pen, similar to a Bic. Harry recalls receiving a Biro — wrapped, for some reason, in a tiny rubber fish — as a present one Christmas from Princess Margaret, a.k.a ...
- meredith.blake@latimes.com
- Staff Writer
An older form of this expression, go spare, meaning "become angry" has been discussed on ELU; links there suggest that spare in that phrase may derive from a) "excessively (angry) or b) the emotional reaction to being made "spare", i.e. unemployed. MORE: Partridge, *A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English) gives this:
Jan 6, 2023 · The phrase the heir and the spare (and its variations, such as the spare to the heir and an heir and a spare), is an informal way of referring to the two children of a monarch who are first and second in line for succession. The first in line for succession to the throne is, of course, the heir. In the expression, the word spare, then, is a bit ...
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Go spare. British colloquialism meaning to become extremely agitated or lose one’s temper dates in this sense from the 1950s but earlier, before WWII, it meant to be out of a job and thus spare or surplus to requirements. Being in such a situation would tend to make one disgruntled and it thus evolved into the current meaning. We are human.
