Believe you me! Boy-o!

Posted by Lewis the Celt on January 09, 2004

In Reply to: Believe you me! posted by R. Berg on January 09, 2004

: : Just wondering if anyone knew the origins of the the expression 'Believe you me...' and how it came by that form which when used today sounds slightly archaic.

: : Was there once an "in" between 'you' and 'me'?

: : Cheers.

: From Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day:

: "'believe you me!' a vaguely emphatic, somewhat conventional catchphrase of C20. Granville notes that 'this is the [naval] Gunnery Instructor's emphasis to any statement. 'Believe you me, that is the only way to do the job.' . . ."

: From me: "In" would change the meaning. "Believe you me" doesn't mean "Believe in me," it means "Believe me."

Look-you! The Welsh language must have affected how native Welsh speakers used English. I think that adding "you" as a suffix for emphasis may derive from the Welsh, from which I derive partial ancestry. Lyrical they are, lyrical.