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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Charlie Bucket on Thursday 23 June 22 07:45 BST (UK)
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Hello.
There was a small gathering in 1929 in New Zealand hosted by Mrs Berry, with a journalist from the local paper in attendance.
He wrote the following: "Have a shake" said Mrs Berry in her cheerful commanding way, in bidding the guests goodbye.
I don't think she was suggesting they have a protein shake!
Or a handshake.
What did she mean?
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Nut tree or fruit tree perhaps? :-\
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Why wouldn’t it be a handshake?
There is this song, so maybe Mrs Berry might have been saying go and have a good time and think of us, or something along those lines,
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNCH19201231.2.38?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Have+a+shake&snippet=true
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I didn't think it was a handshake because it seemed to be an exhortation directed to the group. If you want to shake hands you tend to just put your hand forward. Was hand shaking more a male thing once?
The "Ballad of Hogmanay" was written in the same decade as the gathering and suggests it was a common phrase at the time. Your interpretation, mckha489, "go and have a good time......" sounds pretty good to me.
I'm sorry mowsehowse, but I must be a bit slow tonight. Could you elaborate?
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I didn't think it was a handshake because it seemed to be an exhortation directed to the group. If you want to shake hands you tend to just put your hand forward.
You don't seem to be allowing for changes in social habits after 90 years. I seem to remember hearing or seeing the phrase 'Put it there' as an invitation to shake hands - which has always sounded odd to me, and I think might sound even odder in 2022 ?
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Yes, I remember hearing often "Put it there" in times past.
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'Put it there' is a American TV movies cliche for closing a deal from the 1950-1960 British tv era. Can't remember ever meeting it in reality.
Alex
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QUOTE: "I'm sorry mowsehowse, but I must be a bit slow tonight. Could you elaborate?"
Well it seems to me that saying to someone as they leave your gathering "have a shake", might mean shaking something on the way out of the house/garden/ property.....
So you could invite your guests to shake a fruit or nut tree, on the way to the gate, and take away the produce.......
:-\ ??
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could it be a bit like 'shake a leg'?
which could be 'hurry up', 'get a move on' or possibly 'dance'.
The nature of the gathering or who the other attendees were might give more of a clue.
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Here you go Lisa
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19290513.2.33?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Have+a+shake+said+Mrs+berry&snippet=true
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could it be a bit like 'shake a leg'?
which could be 'hurry up', 'get a move on' or possibly 'dance'.
The nature of the gathering or who the other attendees were might give more of a clue.
One of my grandmothers (from Yorkshire) would often say "get a shake on" when she meant to hurry up / get a move on
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In Scotland we used to say "put a shake on" meaning hurry up.
Cheers
Guy
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Here you go Lisa
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19290513.2.33?items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=Have+a+shake+said+Mrs+berry&snippet=true
thank you :)
1929 - so perhaps it's a 'catchy phrase' of the era connected with the dances of the 1920s, either that or an exhortation to 'look lively'.
I don't really know, just thinking out loud ;)
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Looking at the newspaper report, it was middle of May, so it would be winter. Maybe she was holding the door open for her guests when they left, and didn't want them to linger in the doorway and let too much cold air in.
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Looking at the newspaper report, it was middle of May, so it would be winter. Maybe she was holding the door open for her guests when they left, and didn't want them to linger in the doorway and let too much cold air in.
oh I like that ;D
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Thanks for everyone's help so far. I have been looking for the phrase in the BNA and also Trove - the Australian newspaper archive. Unfortunately the software often reads "have a share" as "have a shake".
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Looking at the newspaper report, it was middle of May, so it would be winter. Maybe she was holding the door open for her guests when they left, and didn't want them to linger in the doorway and let too much cold air in.
oh I like that ;D
That is what I thought ... perhaps it also meant give the body a shake, after all if they have been in a warm house, shaking your body up a bit before venturing outside in the cooler air in their winter coat. Just speculation :D
Cheers
KHP
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Deleted.
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Deleted somehow I doubled up on my post ;D
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Could the 'shake' in 'have a shake' said to the departing guests referred to some sort of party favour like a bag of sweets, etc.?
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“Shake a leg” or “get a wriggle on” were sayings of my older relations (Australia ) when they wanted someone to hurry up, or move quicker .
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"Have a shake" said Mrs Berry in her cheerful commanding way, in bidding the guests goodbye.
I would read that as Mrs Berry, who 'in her cheerful commanding way' sounds like a woman not to be messed with, instructing her guests to hurry up and leave ;D
'Shake a leg' and 'get a shake on' as others have said are expressions used to mean....get a move on .
Looby :)
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You're right, loobylooayr, she was a woman not to be messed with although she was also very kind and had an interesting life.
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I wonder if it means something like "good luck" - as in "have a shake" of dice? :-\