I'll say!

[Smapti]

@Aquadementia

My word!

By my huckleberry pie, if it sounds out of place maybe it’s because we aren’t in the habit of proclaiming oaths much anymore. If we were oath swearers, instead of just sex and revulsion swearers, “I’ll say” might sound timid.

…said the actress to the bishop.

[ftg]

@Icarus

This idiom originated in the early 1800s. It is said that welcome visitors to a house were served a hot meal but someone who was not welcome was given a cold shoulder of whatever meat was being eaten. The shoulder was known to be the coldest and toughest part of the animal and a much inferior meal.

Why would a meat shoulder be colder than any other cut? Seems rather absurd.

Anyway …

One expression a great-grandfather used was “Boy, howdy!” to express that something is good/surprising. Somehow FtGKid1 picked this bit of family history up and uses it. Despite the decades separating their lives. So …

“Boy, howdy!”

[SpoilerVirgin]

@ftg

One expression a great-grandfather used was “Boy, howdy!” to express that something is good/surprising. Somehow FtGKid1 picked this bit of family history up and uses it. Despite the decades separating their lives. So …

“Boy, howdy!”

I hear “Boy, howdy!” in the voice of Lee Majors. Took me a minute to trace that back. It was his catchphrase when he played Heath Barkley on The Big Valley.

[PatrickLondon]

I’ve always understood “I’ll say!” as literally meaning “I’ll say [the same as you, if you hadn’t already said it]”. It’s just an elaborate emphatic, though often with a sarcastic overtone implying someone’s stated the bleedin’ obvious:https://youtu.be/NMqcICtij0M?t=134

[guizot]

@SpoilerVirgin

One of the meanings of “how” is “to a great extent”: “How kind of you;” “How rude!;” “How interesting;” etc. So “And how!” means “and how very much it is.”

Yeah–many of these expressions are just shortened versions of longer phrases. So, as Inner Stickler notes, I’ll say is something like, “I’ll say that myself, (too)” “I’ll say that for the record.” Kind of like, by my word, verily, etc.

[guizot]

@ftg

Why would a meat shoulder be colder than any other cut? Seems rather absurd.

That’s kind of a folk etymology. More rigorous research indicates that Sir Walter Scott started it, by translating from the Vulgate Bible, and it has nothing to do with food. The “cold” part simply conveys unfriendliness.