Talk:hold my beer

Confidence
the current definition omits the connotation of confidence or overconfidence. This is a key element of "Hold my beer". Often the full phase is "Hold my beer, I got this". The meaning is that the speaker is confident he can accomplish the implied action without any aid, beyond holding his beer. It should be noted that the friend holding his beer is now unable to help, because the friend is now holding a beer.


 * ✅ Equinox ◑ 00:45, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

Older meaning: fight?
Hold my beer seems to have been hi-jacked to a completely different meaning in the last 20 years. In 1970s England, if you said "Hold My Pint" it was short for "Hold My Pint, I might spill it". Which in turn was shorthand for ... 'I'm just off to knock the cr*p out of this idiot, I don't want to spill my drink doing it'. It had nothing to do with direct stupidity, just something said by those a touch handy with their fists, either to express the desire to knock the bejeeezus out of somebody, or before doing it.


 * Any idea where we can find evidence of this in use (specifically meaning "I am going to fight", and not merely implying it by context)? Equinox ◑ 19:31, 31 July 2018 (UTC)

There's several variations, be they, "Hold my pint/ coat /beer". From 2009, however it's far older, here it's used in the 'coat' variant. https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/754942-39-Kinell-someone-hold-my-coat-If-I-have-to

"'Kinell: someone hold my coat. If I have to see Hazel Bleugh's ratty little face trying to pathetically regain the moral highground, I will deck her, I really will..."

I have seen it used in 1950s British cinema, likely used in Ealing comedies, and it wasn't new then. It's far older. Any Brit (Facebook/ Youtube generation excepted), hearing "Hold my pint/beer/coat" will be expecting to witness a fight. Or, at the very least, understand the displeasure of the speaker.

There's this cartoon, from 1952: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O699704/hold-my-coat-drawing-shepard-ernest-howard/ the artist was born in the 1870s. It depicts an impending fight. I think the 'desire to fight' meaning can be accepted to be far older than 1952.