|
|
Re: Off pat & Off your own batPosted by R. Berg on June 06, 2001 In Reply to: Off pat & Off your own bat posted by Ed Addis on June 06, 2001 : Any ideas as to the origins of these? The alphabetical meanings-and-origins list on this website explains "on your Pat" as "on your own" (Cockney or Irish rhyming slang: "on your Pat Malone"). Maybe our British friends can tell us whether "off pat" is related. The Oxford Engl. Dict. traces "off his own bat" to cricket: "in reference to the score made by a player's own hits" and, figuratively, "solely by his own exertions, by himself."
|