When did people start using 'cold shoulder' when referring to a situation where little or no attention is given to another person? And what's the real meaning?
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Tsamaya is on semi-retirement
ANSWERS: 3
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huh? It means people walk right past you like you don't exist...all you see is a cold harsh non-caring shoulder. You didn't know that? It's what everyone who didn't answer this thread did. Get used to it.
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sounds like your bein kind of a dick for no reason...chill out bro. yea it means turning a shoulder to somewone who is tryin to talk to you, kind of meant as an insult....and cold---cold shoulder
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http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold-shoulder.html The first reference to the phrase in print is in Sir Walter Scott's 'The Antiquary', 1816: "The Countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther". 'Cauld' is Scottish dialect for 'cold'. Should you doubt that 'shouther' means 'shoulder', Scott goes on to use the word in other contexts which make the meaning clear. For example, "They were stout hearts the race of Glenallan, ... they stood shouther to shouther". Note that the shoulder is shown, not eaten - there's no reference to food here [refuting theory about some visitors offered only 'cold shoulder of mutton']. Likewise, in a slightly later work of Scott's - St. Ronan's Well, 1824: "I must tip him the cold shoulder, or he will be pestering me eternally." Scott coined several phrases, e.g. 'lock, stock and barrel'. The fact that the two earliest known citations of 'cold shoulder' come from his writing would suggest he coined this too.
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