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No sh*t, Sherlock

Posted by ESC on April 23, 2009 at 21:39

In Reply to: No sh*t, Sherlock posted by Gary Martin on April 23, 2009 at 16:53:

: : "No sh*t, Sherlock" - who coined that?
: : Five years ago I am pretty sure I had never heard it; now I sometimes find myself saying it, and I have no idea where or when I first encountered it.

: I recall an American friend (from Queens, New York) using it in the early 1970s.

1970s, originally U.S., ext. of "No, ****!" (late 19c). Sherlock is a pun on Holmes!, which itself puns on "homes"; plus ironic use of the fictional detective SHERLOCK Holmes. From Cassell's Dictionary of Slang by Jonathon Green (Wellington House, London, 1998). Page 847. I'm not sure what all that means -- the homes part.

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