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Kid old sock old bean.

Posted by Smokey Stover on July 03, 2005

In Reply to: Kid old sock old bean. posted by ESC on July 02, 2005

: : : Kid old sock old bean.

: : : My Dad used to call me this all the time. Any ideas?

: : I have an idea he liked you.

: It sounds like college slang to me. I can hear Jimmy Stewart saying it so I must have heard it in an old movie. One reference says "old bean" dates from the 1910s and is a jocular term of address, usually to a man. It could be from "bean" for head or "being." From Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green (Wellington House, London, 1998).

"Kid," as in "Here's to you, kid." "Old bean" (for noggin, not being), I would think almost any work by P.G. Wodehouse. "Old sock"? Well, the OED has a bunch of "old socks" citations. THere ought to be a connection with a single old sock. But by and large, what to make of it is that Dad was a bit of a kidder, but certainly liked you. SS

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