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Origins of "You Got This" and "Wait For It"

English Language & Usage Asked on June 29, 2021

What are the earliest reference quotes, using the cool modern senses below, for each phrase?

”You got this”:
Motivational encouragement to instill confidence to overcome some problem/foe.
(quoting “You’ve got this” or “I got this” or “I’ve got this” also counts)

“Wait for it”:
Command to create suspense in anticipation of some beneficial/exciting occurrence
which the speaker is sure will occur within the next few seconds.

2 Answers

I believe that "Wait for it" started with Radar O'Reilly on M A S H in the 1970s. He certainly used the phrase in the show.

Answered by Carl Tait on June 29, 2021

OED has 1930 for "Wait for it":

Wait for it

said (often parenthetically) to create an interval of suspense before imparting something remarkable or amusing, in order to heighten its effect. Also ironically. colloquial.

1930 M. Allingham Myst. Mile xviii. 170 ‘Wait a minute,’ said Mr. Knapp. ‘Wait for it... That is just exactly wot I do know.’
1966 ‘H. Calvin’ Italian Gadget ii. 21 We can have a shower and..wait for it, dinner at the Palazzo Capucci.

OED doesn't have the exclamatory encouraging usage of "got this" at all, although it might be derived from

10. a. transitive. To win (a victory), to gain the favourable issue of (a battle, a field of combat, a match, etc.).

c1330 Horn Child l. 462 in J. Hall King Horn (1901) 184 At iustes & at turnament..euer þai gat þe gre.

[Get is so old and the OED entry is so correspondingly long that I may have missed a more appropriate instance, though.]

Answered by Andrew Leach on June 29, 2021

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