| 词组 | luck out |
| 释义 | luck out According to Harper 1985, luck out was commonly used during World War II in some such sense as "to meet with bad luck; run out of luck," as in describing a soldier who was a casualty of battle ("He lucked out") or a poker player who lost his chips. The Harper panelists are asked if they think that the newer sense of luck out, "to succeed because of good luck," has now superseded the older sense. Most of them vote yes, but 26 percent vote no. We find those "no" votes a bit peculiar, because we have collected almost no evidence of the older sense cited by Harper. An entry for it can be found in Went-worth & Flexner's Dictionary of American Slang (1960), indicating that it had "some W. W. II use; some general use, " but we have to wonder how common its use ever became. Several World War II veterans on the Harper panel have never heard of it, and our files include only a single citation: • Elementary school children get a day off Feb. 17 • Junior and Senior High Schools are lucked out.... Both will be in session —Springfield (Mass.) Union, 31 Jan. 1958 The little evidence we have showing luck used as a verb during World War II is suggestive of good luck, not bad: • "Landing was the real job, in that fog. I was pretty sure about my navigation ... and decided to luck it and set her down " —pilot quoted by William L. White, New Republic, 20 Apr. 1942 • Just now I wouldn't give a nickel for the chances, but we may luck it through —Commander Frederick J. Bell, Condition Red, 1943 Such usage is consistent with the occasional use of luck as a verb dating back to the 16th century. Likewise, luck out in its now common sense "succeed by luck" is consistent with older uses of the verb. We first recorded this luck out in 1951: • ... had been arrested by a plainclothesman, who, as they say in Harlem, had lucked out on him; that is, the officer had picked him up merely on suspicion, searched him in a hallway, and found his dope outfit —Eugene Kinkead, New Yorker, 10 Nov. 1951 A brief article by James E. Miller, Jr. in the December, 1954 issue of American Speech testified to the common use of luck out in this sense by college freshmen. By the 1960s it had become established in more general use. It now occurs commonly in both speech and general writing: • ... I've lucked out on a couple of occasions —Jay Jacobs, Gourmet, July 1979 • He lucked out in other ways, too —Barbara Rowes, People, 22 Nov. 1982 • ... would have been a complete disaster if I had not lucked out —Andrew Sarris, Village Voice, 12 Apr. 1983 Luck is also now commonly combined as a verb with prepositions, especially into: • ... fortunate enough to have lucked into the bawdy, rollicking Paris of Henry Miller —James Atlas, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 5 June 1983 • You might just luck into tomorrow's action —John Barth, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 16 June 1985 The sense of luck out cited by Harper, however, appears no longer to be used. |
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