Posted by Peter H on May 12, 2003 at 18:02:26 from 213.122.183.91 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Half badly posted by Dave Thewlis on May 12, 2003 at 00:49:35:
I reckon it all started with two simple litotes - 'Not bad!' - meaning 'Quite good!', and 'Not half!' - meaning 'You bet!'. Then the two got combined somehow. As AR's text seems to be accurate as to contemporary expressions, I presume that the illogical combination was 'in' at the time.
By the way, Ed - no need to replace 'gotten' with 'got' in your postings. The point I made was that Peggy would not have said 'gotten', because she was (is) not a Yankee nor a Redneck nor any kind of American. You can say 'gotten' as often as you like, 'cos it's in your raisin'!
(On the subject of US-style put-downs, I heard of a good Texan one the other day - 'He's all hat and no cattle'.)