Comments on: coulda shoulda woulda?

Question: coulda shoulda woulda?

humuhumu — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 01:11:42 -0800

What is the origin of the phrase 'coulda, shoulda, woulda'?

By: humuhumu

humuhumu — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 02:11:50 -0800

Or should it be 'coulda woulda shoulda'....?

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 02:36:49 -0800

IIRC Pat Riley claimed in his book "The Winner Within" that the phrase arose within Showtime Laker circles, as a way of saying forget about the previous season when they lost in the finals, and focus on the present. It may just have been the time when that saying originally made the rounds.

By: Manjusri

Manjusri — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 05:17:31 -0800

Yes, its coulda woulda shoulda.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:10:32 -0800

The earliest I am able to find "coulda woulda shoulda" without spending too much time on it is in a June 19, 1977 advertisement in the N.Y. Times for the municipal bond firm Halpert, Oberst and Company. The phrase is huge on the page.

As a result of searching I can see that although "coulda woulda should" is the most common form, "coulda shoulda woulda" is by no means uncommon. However, "could've should've would've" is not common.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 08:25:43 -0800

Theodore Drieser has this line in his American Tragedy, published in 1925: "I coulda chucked my job, and I woulda." That seems close enough to think that the "coulda woulda shoulda" formulation might have been around then.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:13:59 -0800

I think Pat Riley's usage ("If you coulda, and you shoulda, you woulda") is clearly responding to an existing phrase.

Mo, I think "woulda coulda shoulda" is the most common. monju is probably right -- I think it's pretty old, but it was probably turned into a sports cliché in or around the 1970s.

I coulda sworn I knew of a TV or movie character who used it a lot but I can't find any reference to that.

Interestingly, it's been used in several songs the last few years, including Beverley Knight, Celine Dion.