"back in the day..." ???

[UncleFred]

Where and when did this phrase originate? Its been around a while now and I seem to be hearing it more and more. Its sounds kind of wrong gramatically or something.

[RealityChuck]

It's probably a shortening for "Back in the day when I was young." I've also seen "back in my day," meaning the same thing.

Back in my day, people were using the phrase.

[KneadToKnow]

I've never seen it as anything but a stoopidification of "back in the old days" or "back in my day." But I'm sure a lot of the idioms I used sounded like stoopidifications when they were new, too. My main problem is that it implies that there was only one "the day," and whatever time that describes for the speaker is the only time it can describe.

Now, you kids get off my lawn.

[New Beginning]

No idea how accurate it is, but according to an article quoted here:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi...L=ads-l&P=3108

We have:

Originally Posted by Tribune

The origins of "back in the day" are obscure, but the consensus among linguists and word watchers participating in The American Dialect Society's e-mail discussions seems to be that "back in the day" arose from hip-hop music circa the 1980s.

[The Hamster King]

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

My main problem is that it implies that there was only one "the day," and whatever time that describes for the speaker is the only time it can describe.

That's what I like about it ... that little whiff of self-aware nostalgia.

[LSLGuy]

never mind

[DrCube]

It also has a little whiff of playful contradiction, by using the definite article for something that is not definite at all. "Back in my day" is vague and arbitrary, but at least refers to a time when I was alive. "Back in the day", while seemingly more definite ("the") is actually MORE vague. I've seen people refer to ancient Rome as "back in the day". It could be any time, really.

[Elendil's Heir]

I don't mind it. I actually think it still sounds a little bit offhanded and hip.

:: shrugs ::

[Zoe]

...but the consensus among linguists and word watchers participating in The American Dialect Society's e-mail discussions seems to be that "back in the day" arose from hip-hop music circa the 1980s.

Nonsense. I grew up hearing old people use it in the 1940s. It's probably been around for hundred of years.

I also used to hear "back in the days" as in: Back in the days before television and video games, the neighborhood kids played outside until after dark.

I wonder if that use is dialectical or just reserved for us old folks who grow nostalgic now and then. It would make just as much sense if "Back" were left off.
I would think that "back in the day" is just a variation of that.

Do you have a direct link to these American Dialect Society email discussions?

[Exapno Mapcase]

The phrase certainly feels old, but there's a real lack of citations for it in the modern sense.

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, Edition: 9, revised, by Eric Partridge, Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor, dates it to 1988 as an adverb that "at a time in the past that evokes a feel of nostalgia, real or conjured."

"Back in my day" is much older. I can quickly find 100-year-old usages in Google Books.

The Book of Daniel Drew By Bouck White (1910)

There was old Hakaliah Bailey of Somers - Somerstown Plains it was, back in my day.

"Hell for Leather," by G. B. Lancaster, Everybody's Magazine‎ (1905)

"There was young fools back in my day "

Nothing comes up for "back in the day" in a search of Project Gutenberg's public domain pre-1923 works. That shift of one word seems to make all the difference.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I first heard it in the past 10-15 years or so. Doesn't mean that I had never heard anyone use it before, but it may well be that hip-hopsters elevated it to a more broad-based usage.

[MrDibble]

Originally Posted by Zoe

Nonsense. I grew up hearing old people use it in the 1940s. It's probably been around for hundred of years.

The specific phrase "Back in the day[full stop]" (as used in the seminal track "Girls" by the Beastie Boys) or phrases like "Back in the day when ...."?

[hammos1]

It's an old-fashioned expression which seems to have had a resurgence recently. Dane Cook has a bit about it in his routine, which has probably helped it gain currency.

[Keeve]

Originally Posted by KneadToKnow

I've never seen it as anything but a stoopidification of "back in the old days" or "back in my day." But I'm sure a lot of the idioms I used sounded like stoopidifications when they were new, too. My main problem is that it implies that there was only one "the day," and whatever time that describes for the speaker is the only time it can describe.

Ditto.

Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase

"Back in my day" is much older. I can quickly find 100-year-old usages in Google Books.

By using the word "my", the phrase is describing which time period it is referring to, exactly like "back in the day when such-and-such". My hangup is with these whippersnappers who simply use "back in the day" to refer to any indeterminate era prior to their memories.

[jharvey963]

I started a previous thread on this very topic here.

J.