8 ms·
Never realized that this wasn’t a common expression in the US till now. > “(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.”
by seanieb 6mo ago
Never realized that this wasn’t a common expression in the US till now.
> “(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.”
- treetalker 6mo agoAt first I thought that it must have been dictated as "caught on" and simply mistranscribed. TIL! I like the first sense: > (Ireland, informal, idiomatic) To stop behaving immaturely; behave, grow up. > You'll get in trouble with the boss if you don't cop on. Irish is on my list of languages to learn, and I wonder if by chance this expression has roots in the Irish language. --- Later edit: OED does not give the phrase "cop on" under cop (although perhaps it's in one of the supplements, which I don't have yet). But one of the general senses is "to catch", so I guess it's just a variation of the phrase.