![]() But, my precious eyes! I does'nt think as how you're no gemmen at all!"īoth of these instances evidently refer to transportation-the punishment of being sent off to a distant penal colony in Australia or elsewhere as punishment for a crime in England-and by the 1800s few convicts were being sent across the Atlantic. "Nonsense," said the Doctor, "I mean to say that you're a loose character." - "D-n," says Jarvey, "bating that I've been across the herring pond once, and had a spell at the hulks twice, who can say a word agin my carracter for being had up now and then goes for nicks, every gemmen knows that ere. Īnd from " Chit Chat," in The Metropolitan (August 1833): He in the short green jacket, white, hat, buff waistcoat, and cossack trowsers, is Jack Dauntless, who would, not very long since, have been sent across the herring-pond, if fortune had not stood his friend, and by means of a flaw in the indictment procured his acquittal of a charge of swindling. There-those two, now walking off arm-in-arm, are two of the greatest sharpers on the turf. III," in La Belle Assemblée: or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine (July 1824): The earliest and most common variation on "across the pond" in Google Books search results, however, takes the form "across the herring pond." Here are two such examples. publication called Holden's Dollar Magazine (July 1849). The earliest Google Books match for "across the great pond" is even earlier-from a U.S. At least one fairly early reference to the Atlantic Ocean as "the big pond" comes up in a Google Books search, from Eliza Cook's Journal (March 20, 1852), a London periodical. The reason phenry couldn't find matches from before 1885 in a Google Books search for "the pond" may have been that in many early references the expression contains a qualifying modifier: "the big pond," "the great pond," "the herring pond," "the salt pond," or some combination of these characterizations. Indeed, generally the idea of being a "witty understated Englishman" is something that belongs more to older people there the yoof have Snapchat. The phrase is dropping out of use in the UK, so it sounds a hair archaic. ![]() (It's used on both sides of the pond.) It originated in the UK: I would suggest in the USA the phrase is used mainly on the East Coast (New York City and so on). Note: as John below points out, this phrase is certainly used in both the USA and in the UK. So in the 1800s, you can see that because of extreme British naval power - combined with the typical British gift for understatement - it would be natural to refer to the Atlantic as merely a silly pond. ![]() In that era, the "Sun never set on the British empire." Britain was the biggest-ever world empire: indeed, that was largely based on naval power. I'm afraid I don't know about earliest usage although PHenry mentioned it could have been used as early as the 1800s. Rather, it's a perfect example of typical understated, dry, English humour. I feel that the aspect "the world is smaller now" is really not that relevant: indeed, the phrase is far too old for that to be the case.
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