One of my favourite Australian etymologies: "shotty not" - a phrase meaning "I claim the right to not do that task" is derived circuitously from "riding shotgun".
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Originally, of course, "riding shotgun" meant sitting in the passenger seat of a coach with a gun to defend against bandits. From this comes the cry of "shotgun!" meaning "I claim the front passenger seat"
But Australian children generalised this to mean claiming any kind of scarce privilege, e.g. "shotgun first go on the Xbox". This could then be abbreviated as "shotty" and inverted (to disclaim responsibility) with the addition of "not"
Today, even adults sometimes say "shotty not", yet it retains the essentially childlike assumption that whoever speaks first overrules the objections of others
Comments