World of pain (detective work)

Posted by Word Camel on February 08, 2005

In Reply to: World of pain posted by ESC on February 08, 2005

: : In the the Coen brothers' Big Lebowski there's a character who threatens people with 'you are about to enter a world of pain'. I've heard this used elsewhere a few times recently.

: : Did the Coen's make this up or was it already in use? I don't recall hearing it the UK before the film came out.

: In the U.S. I've heard, "You're going to be in a world of hurt."

I remembered a book from when I was a bookclerk called "Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working Class Family", by Lilian Rubin. It was pubilshed in 1976 in the US. That's probably not the origin, but at least we know it's been around in the US since then.

Camel