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Etymology of the Verb sock

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Hans Sperber
Hans Sperber*
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
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Information

Type
Miscellanea
Information
Language , Volume 28 , Issue 1: January-March , March 1952, pp. 109 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 1952 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 The dating of this passage is rather doubtful. According to the editor, the story ‘has passed, by word of mouth, up and down the New England coast for almost a hundred years’; but this does not necessarily mean that the wording can be trusted in every detail. Note however that an independent version found in another collection has the following: 'Shall I let her have the long dart?' An' they sez, 'Sock it to 'er.' An' I socked it to er' an' it tuk! (A treasury of American folklore 506–7 [ed. B. A. Botkin; New York, 1944]). Thus it appears likely that the word sock belongs to the original text.