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Re: Pretty as you please

Posted by ESC on April 16, 2009 at 15:21

In Reply to: Pretty as you please posted by Lucas Dugan on April 15, 2009 at 18:16:

: I am attempting to establish if the phrase 'pretty as you please' was used in America prior to the 1840s.

All I've found so far is that "pretty" meaning well-behaved dates back to 1878/New England. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume IV by Joan Houston Hall (2002, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Page 344-345.