"shut down" origins?
I'm curious if anyone has some insights to the origin of the term "shut down"? I found nothing with a google search, and the online dictionaries seem to just pull up vanilla definitions with no...
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The OED2 has the sense meaning to close a plant from 1895. There is an earlier, literal sense meaning to close by lowering, 1794.
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Do we have any idea what was originally lowered. Did it refer to a door being lowered to close? I can't picture that in 1794.
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Early citations refer to windows or the "lights" of a greenhouse, gardening frame, etc. (in the 1794 citation, of a cucumber bed).
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Did the use of the term this way pre-date the Beach Boys ?------------------------------------------------------------It happened on the strip where the road is wideTwo cool SHORTS standin" side by...
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pk-glad you emphasized "short." Most think it is shark. Short of course refes to a souped up car; its use is/was more popular in black speech for unknown reasons. Check "Trickle Trickle" the original...
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DDW, Do you think the term came from "Short wheel base" as some have suggested? Of course "short" is a relative term and those cars would certainly approach "full sized" today.
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According to Cassell's:"short [1910s+] 1. street car 2. an automobile. [the comparatively short distance a street car or automobile would travel compared to a railway train]"
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pk-the Hawk gave the origin- but short did seem to be used mostly by car folk ie, hot rodders, & also by blacks ,the latter for reasons I can't fathom at all.
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Doowop, according to Cassell's, "short" has only one definition attributed to Blacks: [1970s] (US Black) a cigarette butt.Another that might have come from Blacks, but isn't attributed to them:...
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Hawk- IMO, short was used by those hard core Calif car nuts of the 50s-60s. I didn't mean that blacks created the term, just routinely used it, even if they were not part of the "car scene." The only...
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