What is the origin of the term “going south” for a business deal or other prospective future activity going sour?
Pure speculation here:
I’m thinking it dates from the Civil War, from carpetbaggers and such going south to pursue their business interests. Perhaps after the war was over and the South was decimated, it was considered a joke up north to say that a businessman was “going south”. Maybe if I or someone can find a cite it would help bolster my theory.
I think South=down and North = up is fairly old connotation. Also down = bad and up = good. So, instead of he went down you can say he went south.
I don’t think so, Young Mr. Grace. If that were true, “Going South” would have the connotations of “Trying a Crap Shoot” at worst, and “Heading for Cibola Where the Streets are Paved with Gold” would be more likely.
I think it’s simply because on a conventional map, “South” is “down”, so it means “going down”.
No, not that you perverts 
Especially as portrayed on a graph, which would be pointing “southward” as if it were a map.
wow did I think this topic was about something completely unrelated… hm… hm…
I guess that would have been in the IMHO forum though
I also know that we did this one sometime in the past. It may have been during the board wipeout.
There are at least two theories on what the term originated from. But the term originated around 1900.
http://www.word-detective.com/032602.html#gonesouth