Happy Birthday, John

Today in 1805, John Russell Bartlett was born. He was a co-founder of the American Ethnological Society and author of that invaluable book, A Dictionary of American Regionalisms (on line here). Some entries:

GO AHEAD. To proceed; to go forward. A seaman's phrase which has got (into common use)

TO GO BY. To call; to stop at. Used in the Southern States.--Sherwood's Georgia. Mr. Pickering says this singular expression is often used at the South. "Will you go by and dine with me?" i. e. in passing my house will you stop and dine?.

TO GO FOR. To be in favor of. Thus, 'I go for peace with Mexico,' means I am in favor of peace with Mexico, or, as an Englishman would say, I am for peace with Mexico. This vulgar idiom is a recent one, and is greatly affected by political and other public speakers, who ought to be the guardians of the purity of the language instead of its most indefatigable corruptors.

TO GO IT BLIND. To accede to any object with out due consideration.

TO GO IT STRONG. To perform an act with vigor or without scruple.

TO GO THE WHOLE FIGURE. To go to the fullest extent in the attainment of any object.

TO GO THE BIG FIGURE. To do things on a large scale.

TO GO THE WHOLE HOG. A Western vulgarism, meaning to be out and out in favor of anything. A softened form of the phrase is to go the entire animal.

TO GO THROUGH THE MILL. A metaphor alluding to grain which has been through the mill. A Western editor observed that the mail papers looked as if they had been through the mill, so much worn were they by being shaken over the rough roads. It is often said of a person who has experienced anything, and especially difficulties, losses, &c.