a dialect question

[dragonlady7]

via https://ift.tt/3h4nUXx

Sitting on the couch at home, Dude says to me suddenly, “Hey do you know the phrase to blow somebody in?”

“Yeah,” I said, “it means, like, when you tell on somebody, or turn them in for something. Like, ratting somebody out.”

“So, they say that where you’re from,” he said.

“Uh,” I said, “hang on. I mean, I’ve lived here fifteen years. I don’t know where I heard it. But yeah, I’d use that phrase.”

“Hm,” he said.

So when we got to the farm, well, eventually in conversation Dude said “Somebody’s gonna blow him in to Smokey the Bear for littering,” and Farmsister was like “Smokey the Bear doesn’t care about littering,” and I pounced and said “Ha! so we do use the phrase blow somebody in” and Farmsister was like “what no?” and realized she’d just inferred it from context. But no, she had never heard the phrase before. And her husband, native of Illinois but resident of lots of places, had never heard it before either.

So it’s possible this is a Western/Central NY phrase, and we’re fascinated to know its distribution.

Have you ever heard or used the phrase with that associated meaning? If yes, where are you from and what approximate generation?

The person who brought it up in the first place, in conversation with Dude, is approximately 40 and first encountered it in Syracuse NY; the person was theorizing that perhaps he’d made it up himself, but had spoken to someone who claimed it was Central NY-specific. Dude claims to have been familiar with the phrase but is now doubting that it’s something he picked up in Buffalo; he may have encountered it in Rochester where he went to college, specifically from a non-local roommate who was enthusiastic about stealing slang. Anyway! We can’t tell, now, where we heard it.

Comments

[krait]

I have lived a lot of places (Southwest, Midwest, mid-South, North) and have never heard this phrase. It must be something pretty specific!

[musesfool]

Hmm...I have never heard it in NYC but that doesn't mean it's not in use somewhere around here among younger folx.

[light_of_summer]

Speaking as a (nearly) lifelong resident of the Left Coast, I don't know that expression.

BUT! I wonder if it might be a mash-up of "Blow the whistle on him" and "Do him in"???