[stylist] this is a particularly good "a phrase a week"

Thu Dec 9 23:39:17 UTC 2010

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>From: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>To: "James H. \"Jim\" Canaday M.A. N6YR" <n6yr at sunflower.com>
>Subject: A Phrase A Week - It fell off the back of a truck
>Sender: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 19:18:55 GMT
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>Fell off the back of a truck
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>Meaning
>
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>A euphemism for 'acquired illegally'.
>
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>Origin
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>
>When anyone accounts for their possession of an article by saying it 
>'fell off the back of a truck' or 'fell off the back of a lorry', 
>they may be assumed not to be its legal owner - i.e. it is stolen. 
>'Lorry' is the British version; in the USA and Australia things fall 
>from trucks. This coy language, which feigns innocence but actually 
>emphasizes illegality by using a phrase that is reserved for illegal 
>dealing, is similar to The Godfather's 
>'<http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/an-offer-he-cant-refuse.html>an 
>offer he can't refuse'. Others that relate specifically to stolen 
>goods are the 'five finger discount' and 'I got it from a man in a 
>pub'. Had '<http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/air-quotes.html>air 
>quotes' been in use at the time they might well have been called on 
>when this phrase was first spoken.
>
>The earliest printed versions of 'fell off the back of a lorry' come 
>surprisingly late - like this early example from The Times, 1968:
>
>"The suggestion of the finder, a casual motorist, that the records 
>'must have fallen off the back of a lorry'."
>
>There are many anecdotal reports of the phrase in the UK from much 
>earlier than that, and it is likely to date back to at least WWII. 
>It's just the sort of language that the 'wide-boys' or 'flash 
>Harrys' who peddled illegal goods during and after WWII would have 
>used. These were exemplified in plays and films by the actors George 
>Cole, 
><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-diamond-in-the-rough.html>Sid 
>James, etc. I'm sure a thorough scan of the scripts of the post-war 
>Ealing comedies would throw up a pre-1968 example.
>
>Having been brought up in the truck-free UK with the 'fell off the 
>back of a lorry' version, I have to now concede supremacy to 'fell 
>off the back of a truck'. Versions of that from both Australia and 
>the USA predate the English examples by many years. The earliest 
>that I can find is from the official record of debates in the 
>Australian House of Representatives - Hansard, 1928:
>
>"We heard, through something that had fallen of the back of a truck 
>onto a reporter's table."
>
>In the USA the expression is found just a few years later - as in 
>this example from The Tuscaloosa News, February 1937:
>
>Many transients in Manhattan are constantly being trimmed by suave 
>'chauffers' in light delivery trucks who whisper confidentially that 
>there are some bolts of cloth in the rear seat which fell of the 
>back of a truck.
>
>The meaning seems to have changed slightly since the phrase was 
>coined. Almost all of the early references cite it as being used as 
>patter in a scam to sell the unwary shoddy goods. The current usage 
>is as a reference to a straightforward 'nudge, nudge/I won't tell if 
>you won't' sale of stolen or smuggled goods.
>
>A nostalgic word about lorries. Trucks are now travelling the world 
>and, in the same way that the voracious American Grey Squirrel has 
>overwhelmed the retiring European Red Squirrel, they are, on the 
>road and in the dictionary, becoming dominant. The older generation 
>in the UK is holding out and will have no truck with 'truck' but, as 
>time goes by, lorries will turn into trucks, just a 
><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-whole-shebang.html>charabancs 
>  turned into coaches.
>
>P.S. More on 'have no truck with' in a forthcoming mailout.
>
>
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