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'Sore'

Anyone who has read the works of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Callaghan or pretty much any American literature of this era – the ‘Lost Generation’ – around the 1920s and 30s is likely to have come across the word ‘sore’, in a context very different to how we would use the word today, at least in the UK.

In ‘That Summer in Paris’, and similar texts of its time, the word is used to mean ‘angry’ or ‘irritated’, as opposed to ‘painful’, which is how we would use it today.

“What am I supposed to be sore about?” (http://fitzgerald.narod.ru/bio/callaghan-thatsum.html)

When searching for the word on Google Ngrams, I found no noticeable patterns concerning the use of the word in all literature since 1800. However, I then searched for a more specific phrase – “sore about.” This would only really make sense in Callaghan’s context and not in the modern day sense; these were my results.

sore-graph.jpg

 

The graph shows a steep increase from 1930 to its peak in 1937.

We can, from that, conclude that the word ‘sore’ used in Callaghan’s context, is simply American slang, most commonly used in the 1930s. After its peak in 1937, it appears the use of the word became less common, as often happens with colloquial language. As the likes of Fitzgerald, Hemingway and writers of this ilk died in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, this may account for the steep decline in the use of the word ‘sore’ in this context.

“He could understand I would be sore at receiving a collect wire from Paris from Scott…” (http://fitzgerald.narod.ru/bio/callaghan-thatsum.html)

When searching for ‘sore at’, I found similar results. 

sore-at--e1354067073389.jpg

Use of the phrase ‘sore at’ rose from 1921 onwards, peaking in 1942; after this, there was a steep decline. This reinforces the idea that ‘sore’, meaning ‘angry’, was just American slang which began to die out in the late 30s/early 40s.

 

WORKS CITED

http://books.google.com/ngrams

Callaghan, Morley. 1963. That Summer in Paris: Memories of Tangled Friendships with Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. Available at: http://fitzgerald.narod.ru/bio/callaghan-thatsum.html