[untitled]
3 comments
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.”
> “(Ireland, informal, UK, dialect) To come to understand; twig, cotton on.”
At 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.
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.
cop on : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cop_on#English