Monday, January 31, 2022

“Fast to my pocket”

[Nancy, April 22, 1949.]

Kids don’t talk like that anymore.

Merriam-Webster has this definition, among others: “securely attached,” as in “a rope fast to the wharf.” Or “a dollar bill fast to a pocket.”

Nancy, of course, devises a way to free the dollar and get her soda.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

comments: 3

Geo-B said...

In summers in the early 1970s I worked in a factory in southern Ohio. Once the fork lift driver had locked his keys in a chicken wire cage where the door had a couple of inches give. Since I was then slender, he asked if I could try to squeeze through, and he said, "don't get fast," meaning, don't get stuck.

Michael Leddy said...

That’s some old-time safety talk.

Richard Abbott said...

Back in the Anglosaxon day, "handfasting" was a form of informal marriage (contrasted often with "church marriage") practised in much of northern Europe. In some cases it amounted to a betrothal and was, as it were, replaced with a formal marriage once the relationship was consummated. In other cases, a person might have a handfast marriage based on affection alongside a church marriage for political or social reasons. The ceremony involved tying the hands of the happy couple together.

Etymologically it goes back to Old English fæst - firmly fixed or steadfast. (That's an ae in the middle, in case the font does not survive comment moderation)