david_h wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 4:08 pm
Maybe ‘<noun> me’ is a more commonly used construct with you folk, but not common enough for us to have noticed.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a mostly, if not exclusively, Left-Pond thing. I Googled the words "beer me", went looking for images, and found scads of them with the phrase:
Totally captures the spirit.
But remember that while in theory we can permit ourselves to say "[verbnoun] me" for a lot of things, in practice it's overwhelmingly applied to beer. The phrase has become sort of a cultural artifact in its own right.
Ask yourselves, Right Ponders: Given ordinary circumstances, why would I ask to be assaulted? It makes no sense, and is therefore way off base as a conclusion. I invite you to open your minds to a new perspective. Here's another, semi-related example of US vernacular that might arouse confusion in the UK, but doesn't to those familiar with it: In the US, when playing at cards and you need a new one for your hand, it's common, especially in an energetic game, to say to the dealer, "Hit me." In no way is this a request to be physically struck - it only means "Give me a new card" - yet the words are far more akin to that than "Beer me" ever was. Said in the card-playing context, violence doesn't even enter my mind one bit, much less that I ask for it; I'm just asking for something other than what it conventionally sounds like. Vernacular can do that, after all. We also say "hit [someone] up", which means to make contact, as in this exchange: "We should hang out more." "Hit me up!" Of course it helps if you know that "hit" has several admittedly energetic meanings in US English, "give (me)" being one of them in certain circumstances - but context, my friends; context. Not everything requires it, but it's not to be left out. Just because a vernacular phrase initially conjures a certain image for those who are unfamiliar with it, it doesn't mean that that image is right, nor all that's available. Context goes a long way in determining meaning when we're swimming in vernacular waters. "Hit the hay (or sack)" is a commonplace for retiring with sleep in mind, and in no way does it mean pummeling plant matter (or bags). "Hit" here could be thought to suggest throwing oneself on the mattress (signified by "the hay" or "the sack"), but it's purely by chance; here "hit" only means "go to", and many other formations will have this meaning as well. And I'm sure we all know "hit" in its meaning as a popular success. In a situation where something can be started, "Hit it" serves as an urging to begin, let fly, get going. It serves in popular music contexts, and others such as starting, and especially accelerating, a vehicle. We also say "punch it" for acceleration. "Hit the road" means to depart, and by extension is a way to say, "Get lost." I would agree that these "hit" forms do suggest figurative impact: a new card is an important thing, and the road is depicted as being met with the percussion of a solid step. "Where the rubber hits the road" suggests tires and, well, roads, but unlike "hit the road" on its own, it means that point at which something is put to the test. The tire isn't suddenly making contact, but rotating, and
where the rotation makes contact - the point where it "hits" - is where things matter and the truth is told. In all of these the notion of impact is rhetorical, and nothing more. If I'm announcing my plans to go out for a drink, I would easily say that I'm going to hit the pub. Very colloquial. Does it mean I'll walk up to the building and strike it? Please. The very incongruity of the image should tell one that a different, more likely interpretation is called for, and that it's probably time to entertain the figurative. Or just ask. Don't look to strictly conventional meanings for guidance. "Hitting the sauce" means one has been overdoing their alcohol consumption, not giving the marinara a thrashing. "Hitting the books" is a tad more prosaic in that it means study time; the books' welfare is not in question. There are others yet in this fold, but I hope you get the general idea, if not an intuitive understanding which is probably too much to ask for without exposure.
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"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Balochi musician