GO VERB (YOUTH CULTURE)

In young people's speech: to say, to pronounce (usually in the present tense, reporting speech in the past). Etymology: An extension of the use of go to report a non-verbal sound of some kind expressed as an onomatopoeic word or phrase, as in 'the bell went ding-dong' or 'the gun went bang', perhaps with some influence from nursery talk (as in 'ducks go quack, cows go moo'). History and Usage: This has been used in young people's speech for some time, but was only recently taken up by writers for use in print. Typically the narrative part of the sentence is in the past tense, but go is in the historic present, as, for example 'I bashed him on the head, so he goes "What d'you want to do that for?"' He liked that very much. So he goes: 'More. Sing it again.' Michael Rosen Quick Let's Get Out of Here (1983), p. 67 I go, 'You don't understand how I felt, do you?' Elmore Leonard Bandits (1987), p. 19