I'd Hit That

August 27, 2004 8:38 PM

The origins of the phrase "I'd hit it"

This is the oldest thing that I can find that is semi-related. 'Hit it or Quit it', by Funkadelic.

Is it just a phrase some moron at Fark came up with, or does it have deep roots? (y'know, deep like Hamlet, or something)

posted by graventy to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Didn't James Brown ask his band: "Can I hit it and quit it?"

I don't know when, but it must've been before Funkadelic got together.
posted by dhoyt at 10:17 PM on August 27, 2004

"Can I hit it and quit?" were The Godfather's words.
posted by yerfatma at 9:16 AM on August 28, 2004

I had a friend who said it back in the late 1980s, so it is way older than Fark and probably related to JB.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 9:59 PM on August 28, 2004

Keep in mind that the etymological origin of fuck is a Germanic root meaning strike or hit.

So the general hit it has obvious overtones and longstanding associations. (Heck, my nieces the other day figured out that Push it meant something naughty.) I think we're talking here about the specific phrase I'd hit it which comes laden with a certain ironic pose. Often it's used as a deliberate cheapening of the discourse.

For something very much known as a farkism, it doesn't even appear there until late 2002. (It barely appears on Usenet.) The earliest attestation I can find is 7/25/02, in this Ann Coulter thread. It doesn't sound made-up, nor does it really confuse anyone, so I suspect the origin is external.

My assumption is that there may have been a song or something current in '02 that played the hit it meme, but the only pop music referents I can find are 1999's Hit Me Baby One More Time and something by Gangstarr called Disciple. (It's also used in a newer song by Usher.) It may not have been anything specific.
posted by dhartung at 10:10 PM on August 28, 2004

Deep roots?

This is from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Act II Scene I:

DEMETRIUS
Why makest thou it so strange?
She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;
She is a woman, therefore may be won;
She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.
What, man! more water glideth by the mill
Than wots the miller of; and easy it is
Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know:
Though Bassianus be the emperor's brother.
Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge.

AARON
[Aside] Ay, and as good as Saturninus may.

DEMETRIUS
Then why should he despair that knows to court it
With words, fair looks and liberality?
What, hast not thou full often struck a doe,
And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?

AARON
Why, then, it seems, some certain snatch or so
Would serve your turns.

CHIRON
Ay, so the turn were served.

DEMETRIUS
Aaron, thou hast hit it.

AARON
Would you had hit it too!
Then should not we be tired with this ado.
Why, hark ye, hark ye! and are you such fools
To square for this? would it offend you, then
That both should speed?

I suspect that dhartung is right on with the fuck/strike comment. I wonder if there is any earlier written record of using "hit it" as a euphemism for sex?
posted by funkbrain at 8:58 PM on August 29, 2004

Well, Brand Nubian was using the phrase "hitting skins" back on their first album, which would have been '95 or so.
posted by yerfatma at 10:05 AM on August 30, 2004