British English speakers will sometimes use the expression "you lot" to refer to a group of people (akin to, say, "guys" in North America). I have to think that has similar roots to the other usages you note here.
Ever been in a BIGLOTS store? I have not, and the one in town just closed so I will not, however every time I drove by I imagined a bunch (a lot?) of shipping containers they happened to find with shiny plastic stuff spilling out like a giant rectangular cornucopia
Oh yes! Big Lots were very common in the South, and I loved bargains as a teenager- that seems to be the time in my mind that sicks out for them, so maybe that's when they hit like a critical mass or something.
Also: this reminds me of selling stuff on eBay, typically in lots. EG, "Huge lot of bronze age Marvel comics" or "Lot of sci-fi books from the 80s". Those sold like hotcakes.
100%; we are peas in the lot sale pod. I also liked to describe the comics as they looked as opposed to trying to grade them properly, figuring simply describing what I saw left little room for interpretation (vs explicitly stating "very good condition" or something like that). It was kind of fun to try to figure the game out, you know?
"You lot are a whole bag of trouble," I yell at a bunch of kids on my lawn.
"Get your whole gang out of my parking lot," I continue.
"I hate you a whole lot," I add, starting to run out of ways to combine "lot," "a," and "whole" in a sentence.
There are great many more examples like these out there, but for the lot of me I can't think of any.
Maybe you're not seeing the whole picture, but I wholly lot a a lot lot-lot. A.
This is us: https://youtu.be/yVa-yOAUpnc
Accurate.
British English speakers will sometimes use the expression "you lot" to refer to a group of people (akin to, say, "guys" in North America). I have to think that has similar roots to the other usages you note here.
Yes! Spot-on.
Ohh, I love this kind of talk. Thank you.
Thanks, Leslie - me too!
Good chance you'll appreciate some of these: https://goatfury.substack.com/t/etymology
Ever been in a BIGLOTS store? I have not, and the one in town just closed so I will not, however every time I drove by I imagined a bunch (a lot?) of shipping containers they happened to find with shiny plastic stuff spilling out like a giant rectangular cornucopia
Oh yes! Big Lots were very common in the South, and I loved bargains as a teenager- that seems to be the time in my mind that sicks out for them, so maybe that's when they hit like a critical mass or something.
Also: this reminds me of selling stuff on eBay, typically in lots. EG, "Huge lot of bronze age Marvel comics" or "Lot of sci-fi books from the 80s". Those sold like hotcakes.
Oh yeah! I sold a few "lots" in my eBay comic sellathon. It was the move when you had a bunch of lower grade books
100%; we are peas in the lot sale pod. I also liked to describe the comics as they looked as opposed to trying to grade them properly, figuring simply describing what I saw left little room for interpretation (vs explicitly stating "very good condition" or something like that). It was kind of fun to try to figure the game out, you know?
It really was, I had a lot of fun with it. I started with two of the big comic book boxes, now I have one. It makes a good foot rest under my desk
Every now and then, I want to go scour yard sales or flea markets for comic books.