Some few years since, a letter made its appearance, said to have been written by an honest sailor to his old Father. Here they are.įrom " The Pound of Pig Tail," in the Alexandria Gazette (December 10, 1835): and Australian newspaper databases turns up ten unique instances from the period 1835–1840, all from U.S. With regard to early instances of "smashing" used in a figurative sense-specifically in the sense of "whopping" or "bang-up" (that is, variously, "forceful," "very large," "impressive," or "successful")-an Elephind search of various U.S. A smash can usually be hit with a high amount of force and is often a shot that ends the point.Įarly figurative occurrences of 'smashing' as an adjective is a shot that is hit above the hitter's head with a serve-like motion.16, in reference to Broadway productions of "The Fool" and "The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly"). Meaning "great success" is from 1923("Variety" headline, Oct. Meaning "broken-up condition" is from 1798 that of "failure, financial collapse" is from 1839. Probably its origin meaning 'impressive' comes from tennis: Slang shortening fab first recorded 1957 popularized in reference to The Beatles, c.1963.įabulous (often contracted to fab(s)) and fantastic are also in that long list of words which boys and girls use for a time to express high commendation and then get tired of, such as, to go no farther back than the present century, topping, spiffing, ripping, wizard, super, posh, smashing. Sense of "incredible" first recorded c.1600. Meaning "pleasing, sensational" is from 1911. According to Etymonlime the term smashing has undergone the change in meaning like other terms such as fabulous (see below).ġ833, "violently crushing to pieces," present participle adjective from smash (v.).
0 kommentar(er)
