here's a curious sidebar to all this.
i was considering pasting the entire oed definition of the verb "to hit" but before i copied it, i looked at the etymology and now am confused. so there are 28 definitions of the verb, almost all of which have to do with delivering a blow, striking or a derivation of striking. but they all come from this root:
Quote:
[Late OE. hyttan = ON. hitta to hit upon, light upon, meet with, Sw. hitta, Da. hitte to hit, find.
App. from Norse: cf. Branch II; but the senses under I seem to have been developed at an early date in Eng. from the notion ‘get at, reach’.]
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all of which make me wonder if this curious little expression was launched by some drunken etymology-obsessed gentleman in a publick house somewhere.
it's a shame these slang bits don't travel with footnotes...