Search
shacking up
Posted by Bruce Kahl on March 09, 2005
In Reply to: shacking up posted by JTK on March 09, 2005
: Was this phrase used in 1940's?
shack Look up shack at Dictionary.com
1878, Amer.Eng. and Canadian Eng., of unknown origin, perhaps from Mex.Sp. jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli "wooden hut." Or perhaps a back-formation from dial. Eng. shackly "shaky, rickety" , a derivative of shack, a dial. variant of shake (q.v.). Another theory derives shack from ramshackle. Slang verb phrase shack up "cohabit" first recorded 1935 (in Zora Neale Hurston).