Becaue this link
says it was!! :rolleyes:
There’s nothing in that link which says it needs to refer to anything other than bells. And there’s also other questionable statements there: "RAF pilots were often from English public schools" - really? Even in 1942?
Further thought, though - not only do I find it a very strange suggestion that the metaphor would refer to handbells at a time when many people’s lives were governed by electrically-driven bells…what about mechanical alarm clocks? The manic (and unwelcome!) clappers on these would have been familiar to just about anybody in the 1940s.
Same here, never heard it before. But it does remind me of “I’ve got to pee like a racehorse”.
I once worked with an Aussie who explained to me that “the clappers” was slang for diarrhea, and of course we all know how that “runs”.
He didn’t say in what country or at what time period that slang was used, neither did he hold any authority as a linguist other than being certifiably Aussie (which itself calls his truthiness into question). But interestingly, I did find a reference that describes a lower gastrointestinal purgative pill in the late 18th century. These produced copious diarrhea and were known as “Thunder Clappers”.
Of course gonorrhea also “runs”, and is a closer slang fit than diarrhea. Either way, I’m pretty convinced that it’s one “rhea” or the other.
It speculates about Bells; it states definately that the RAF was using it. And cites a source, in print.
The RAF concept is established, from a contemporary source.
The bells thing is guesswork.
Just a side note - to my (UK) ears it has a definite sexual connotation.
It’s what one might dysphemistically say to indicate an admirably enthusiastic lady.
zhongguorenmin
My British parents both use the phrase.
I hope this thread isn’t too old to be resurrected, but I came across some information that might be relevant.
‘Clapper’ is a term that was used to describe an artificial mound of earth, or other artificial habitat for the breeding of rabbits - here is a reference dating from 1859 for the term. (here are some others of various dates.
Now none of this explicitly supports the etymology of ‘go like the clappers’ (or ‘run like the clappers’, with which I’m more familiar), but I thought it was an interesting possible line of inquiry - given that rabbits are well-known for running to escape predation or danger (although of course it’s the rabbits’ habitat that is described as a clapper in these references, not the rabbits themselves, but I can still imagine a quite plausible path from “run like the conies in the clappers” to “run like the clappers”.
Imagination is cheap, though - tangible results less so - I don’t have any more at this time, but I’m going to continue looking.
Well… here’s a turn up. Having waffled on about rabbits, I found a reference dating to c1880
It’s from a book called The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss - published in 1882 but comprising a collection of letters spanning from 1816 or so up until a year or two before publication.
One of the letters - dated August 3rd 1878 is signed off:
A mill clapper is the part of a flour mill that vigorously taps or shakes the hopper that feeds the grain to the grindstones.
ETA: here is a link to the book.
I just read the thread and the whole time I was thinking mill clappers as Mangetout point out in the end.
Here’s another one from a book called Jo’s Boys, published around about the same time.
Another by the same author in a book named Jack and Jill:
And here it’s ‘went like’ instead of ‘ran like’ - Interesting that those are all references to the tongue though - I haven’t yet found a source for where the term diversified out to mean vigorous action more generally, or stopped mentioning mills.
I work with an Irish obstetrician who tends to say “there’s baby, heart going like the clappers, the wee monkey” when doing antenatal scans. Makes me laugh almost every time.
FWIW, from something that is allegedly “Dictionary of Thieving-Slang, 1737”
http://www.fromoldbooks.org/NathanBailey-CantingDictionary/M/MILL-Clapper.html
A quick jaunt through Google suggests that the mill-clapper analogy usually referred to incessant talking, but it has since become generalized to any process with a rapid and sustained rate of progress.
Clappers in the older texts was used in contexts referring to sticks for setting a pace or other instruments of different cultures, always marking time in an incessant beat.
Not much of a cite, but a person interviewed on a BBC Radio 4 programme recently claimed the rabbit connection, saying that a “clapper” was once the term (presumably the French clapier connection) for a buck rabbit used for breeding in domesticity , and that “clappers” run faster than other rabbits, hence the term.
Yes, I was sceptical too.
I heard the same programme - that was what started me off on the investigation that made me resurrect the thread. On reflection, I think it was probably a bit of tour-guide mythology.