He's toast.

FredPuli43 | 16:32 Mon 12th Nov 2012 | Phrases & Sayings

22 Answers

Where does the expression 'he's toast' come from? Is it recent? Toast is edible, though it is but bread heated and browned; it has its uses, so what is the idea behind the expression?

mayday??

'met up with' and 'met'

Answers

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heathfield

Best Answer

From the New York Times Magazine... ''Hey, dude. You're toast, man'' was a passage in The St. Petersburg Times of Oct. 1, 1987, the earliest citation the Oxford English Dictionary research staff has of this usage. ''Actually, the trendiest way of saying someone is finished is to say 'He's toast,' '' wrote the columnist George Will the following year. ''The...

18:02 Mon 12th Nov 2012

Go To Best Answer

factor-fiction

brown bread= dead?

Hopkirk

I see it as meaning burnt to a crisp, so no use any more.

Kiki-frog

I agree with Hopkirk. I think it's only been in use for the last ten years or so

tonyav

Sounds like an American import to me.

heathfield

AlwaysConfused

agree with factor30, brown bread, dead

jno

I'd sooner be on a roll

chelle7272

Yes I thought it was brown bread / dead as well

jno

invented by Bill Murray in Ghostbusters

http://www.grammarpho...og/2011/05/toast.html

MarkRae

It's an Americanism, so highly unlikely to be rhyming slang. Toasted = cremated.

Wharton

I know someone from Towcester.

chelle7272

Jno I thought that had been disproved since

jno

how disproved? He didn't say it, or someone else said it earlier?

footieshorts

If the OED has a reference to its use from as early as 1897, there can be no 'agreement' nor 'disagreement' about its meaning, nor as to how long it has actually been in usage, as Kiki-frog seems to think!?

footieshorts

I meant to type 1987, not 1897!

jno

erm, that's 1987...

jno

well, if it's in Ghostbusters and that was made in 1984, then it's earlier than the OED says; but I'm not going to watch it again to see.

OED tend to rely on written sources; I'm not sure what they do when someone hands them a DVD as evidence. Especially if the alleged dialogue is adlibbed and not in the written script.

plautus

It might have something to do with the electric chair, I don't know. Certainly "toast" has an American feel to it; brown bread and other rhyming expressions by non-Londoners grew in popularity with the screening of "Only Fools and Horses".