# "I Fell Out Laughing"



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I said recently that "I fell out" when I read something someone had written, and they'd never heard the expr4ession.  The full expression is "I fell out laughing" and I guess is a variation on "I fell down laughing" or ROTFL.    Anyone else use this?  I assumed it was a southern expression, but I found a reference to it in a BostonSpeak site on the web.

Betsy


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## drenee (Nov 11, 2008)

I have not heard that expression.  
deb


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

It wasn't in my lexicon growing up (Pennsylvania & Minnesota parents) but I learned it from my friends I worked with at the quilt shop, who were mostly African American women from the south, so I don't know if it's a southern thing?  Although we had one woman from Boston who worked there--I'll have to ask her.

Betsy


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

I usually hear about someone 'falling out' in regards to partaking in too much alcohol or party favors .... For laughing I've heard and use "I fell out of my chair" .....


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

So maybe it went from 

"I fell out of my chair laughing" 

to 

"I fell out laughing"

to

"I fell out" in its shortest version.

I love language!

Betsy


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

That seems reasonable.

I am reading Crown Princess Louise's diary, written from 1892 to 1901, and I am surprised at how modern some of the language is. She talks about her brother always being "in hot water." I would have thought that was a more recent expression.

Of course, she has lots of men "making love" to her, which in her time meant flirting, not the way we use the phrase today.

L


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## Hopeful76 (Jun 24, 2009)

When I lived in the northeast US, I never heard this expression.  Now that I live in the southeast, I hear it all the time.  I figured it must be a southern expression.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

Never heard it and my family is from the south.


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

I've never heard it before.  I don't think it's used in Minnesota (and that includes Hibbing)


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## suicidepact (May 17, 2009)

I've heard it, and even used it I think. I'm trying to wrap my head aroun d whether or not it's more of a hip-hop reference or more a term from the U.K.?


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## Sariy (Jan 18, 2009)

Fell out to me means passed out.  But then that's the military in me.  Also fall out means get lost


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## Addie (Jun 10, 2009)

I've never heard that before, and I've lived in Texas for most of my life.

What about "pop a squat"? It means to have a seat ... even though it sounds like something else completely.


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## kim (Nov 20, 2008)

AddieLove said:


> What about "pop a squat"? It means to have a seat ... even though it sounds like something else completely.


Many have heard 'pop a squat'. It was said in the movie Pretty Woman. 
I've probably seen that movie 50 times.


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## kevin63 (Feb 10, 2009)

I've used the phrase "fell out laughing" many times.  I've also heard it used quite a bit here in the Saint Louis area.  Many it is a regional thing.


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## patrisha w. (Oct 28, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> It wasn't in my lexicon growing up (Pennsylvania & Minnesota parents) but I learned it from my friends I worked with at the quilt shop, who were mostly African American women from the south, so I don't know if it's a southern thing? Although we had one woman from Boston who worked there--I'll have to ask her.
> 
> Betsy


It may well be a southern thing since I came across it when I was living in Mississippi.

Patrisha


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I said recently that "I fell out" when I read something someone had written, and they'd never heard the expr4ession. The full expression is "I fell out laughing" and I guess is a variation on "I fell down laughing" or ROTFL.  Anyone else use this? I assumed it was a southern expression, but I found a reference to it in a BostonSpeak site on the web.
> 
> Betsy


I've used it both with & without the laughing word. "I 'bout fell out!" I was born & raised in the South (Atlanta) but I honestly can't remember whether I picked it up there or later from other people after started hanging out with folks from all over (the Air Force broadens one's vocabulary that way!)

I do remember friends laughing at me for saying I was "fixin' to" do something. And one friend "fell out" when I said I was fixin' to go to the "beauty parlor".


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## CegAbq (Mar 17, 2009)

Rasputina said:


> Never heard it and my family is from the south.


Ditto
EDIT: well actually, I grew up in Texas, & my grandmother was raised in Atlanta.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I asked my friend who grew up in Portsmouth, VA and she says it was something she said growing up there.

Betsy


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## frojazz (Feb 10, 2009)

My Memphis born and raised coworker claims to use this phrase often.


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## Meredith Sinclair (May 21, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> It wasn't in my lexicon growing up (Pennsylvania & Minnesota parents) but I learned it from my friends I worked with at the quilt shop, who were mostly African American women from the south, so I don't know if it's a southern thing? Although we had one woman from Boston who worked there--I'll have to ask her.
> Betsy


I have only heard "I _almost_ fell out..."


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## nathan19 (Jul 10, 2009)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I said recently that "I fell out" when I read something someone had written, and they'd never heard the expr4ession. The full expression is "I fell out laughing" and I guess is a variation on "I fell down laughing" or ROTFL.  Anyone else use this? I assumed it was a southern expression, but I found a reference to it in a BostonSpeak site on the web.
> 
> Betsy


I've heard that expression numerous times... i live near Boston though


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I've heard it -- and probably said it -- but that was back on my Michigan days.  

Beyond the laughter meaning, it was also used to indicate a child having a temper tamtrum.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I got this from the "Dictionary of American Regional English":



> *fall out* v phr
> *1* To burst out laughing; to be tickled by something funny.
> *scattered, but esp Sth* _esp freq among Black speakers_ CF *fall out of one's cradle*
> *1946* (1972) Mezzow - Wolfe _Really Blues_ 332, Fall out; be tickled to death. *1965-70* DARE (Qu. GG30, _To suddenly break out laughing: "When he told her that, she just ________."_ Infs. CA94, IN32, LA17, 23, MS21, NY235, SC69, Fell out; MI72, MA128, MS73, Fell out laughing; (Qu. GG31, _To laugh very hard: "I thought I'd _________."_) Infs. LA28, VA46, Fall out; (Qu. FF21b... _The first time I heard that one I ________."_) Inf CA94, Fell out [5 of 12 Infs Black] *1967* DARE FW Addit LA3, To fall out laughing [means] to start laughing very hard. *1971* _Today Show Letters_ DC [Black], She was so funny I fell out. *1973* _Patrick Coll._ AL, I like to fell out when he told me that-thar story. *1982* _Smithsonian_ Oct 93 eSC [Black], Everybody includin' her is fallin' out laughin'.
> ...


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## Geoffrey (Jun 20, 2009)

MichelleR said:


> I've heard it -- and probably said it -- but that was back on my Michigan days.


hmmmm ... another recovering Michigander.

I dont' remember it from growing up in SW Michigan, but I here variations here in Texas ....


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## enwood (Mar 13, 2009)

We say it around here quite a bit. (I live in North Carolina)  I work with toddlers and we usually say it when talking about a child having a tantrum.  "His mom wouldn't let him have that toy, and he just fell out."  Sort of like they lost  control.  

And I've always heard "cop a squat" not "pop a squat".  Of course, for a long time I thought it was "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes", so who knows?  I could have been saying a lot of things wrong for a really long time.


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## angelad (Jun 19, 2009)

Geoffrey said:


> hmmmm ... another recovering Michigander.
> 
> I dont' remember it from growing up in SW Michigan, but I here variations here in Texas ....


I don't remember hearing this ever in Michigan.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

i thought it was "cop a squat" too!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Me too!  Isn't language great?

Betsy


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## frojazz (Feb 10, 2009)

I heard "might could" today, as in, "I *might could* give him a call later."

Now that I checked out this thread, I've been listening for phrases that I've grown accustomed to hearing.


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## koolmnbv (Mar 25, 2009)

I have said "fell down laughing" before and also "fell over laughing" and "passed out laughing"


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## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

It's a new one for me.  I would have thought it meant one laughed so hard his insides fell out.  The English language is a funny thing.  My husband's grandmother always referred to making love when all she meant was kissing.  She'd be rolling over in her grave by today's standards.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Yes "making love" had a much more G rated meaning, even as recently as the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).  There's a line that Mary says to her mother about George Bailey where she says he's "making passionate love to me" which clearly wasn't meant the way we would take it today.

Betsy


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

We were out to eat with my grandmother recently and she proclaimed she never understood the appeal of Jimmy Stewart. Even the waitress was, "Wait? What!?"


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ah, well, Grandma...what are ya going to do?

It's like the time my mother told me that she thought the Beatles' lyrics were ridiculous. I said "That from a woman who has a 45 of _Blue Suede Shoes _downstairs?"



Betsy

Blue Suede Shoes lyrics_

Well it's one for the money, two for the show
Three to get ready now go cat go

But don't you, step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

You can knock me down, step on my face
Slam my name all over the place
Do anything that you're going to do
But uh uh honey lay off of my shoes

But don't you, step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

Well it's blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Well you can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

You can knock me down, step on my face
Slam my name all over the place
Do anything that you're going to do
But uh uh honey lay off of my shoes

But don't you, step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes

Well it's blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Blue, blue, blue suede shoes
Well you can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes_


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## Veronica (Jan 23, 2009)

Funny.  I had never heard this phrase before the other week.  My friend (both of us from rural Kansas) texted me to say she FELL OUT (her caps) when her mother offered to watch her two sons for the night.  Her mom avoids babysitting at all costs, so in this context, I think she meant to express her shock at her mom's offer.

She had just returned from a week in Chicago--so I teased her that she must have picked up some Chi-town lingo.


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## B-Kay 1325 (Dec 29, 2008)

I grew up here in Tucson, Az and I have never heard that expression.  Husband & I spent 16 months in N.C. and didn't hear it there either.


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