Gone over to Rome

Posted by Baceseras on October 15, 2007

In Reply to: Gone over to Rome posted by Parthian on October 14, 2007

: : : : : : "Gone over to Rome"

: : : : : : I heard this on the UK 'Weakest Link', and have no idea even what it means, let alone what it relates to. I guess it means betrayal, but Ann Robertson used it to refer to a 'dum-dum'.

: : : : : "Gone over to Rome" in British English means "converted to Roman Catholicism", and "Dum-dum" is an expanding bullet; those are the only meanings as far as I know. Does that fit what you heard her say? (VSD)

: : : : In the U.S., "dum-dum" is also childish slang, same as "dumb-dumb," a stupid or foolish person. ~rb

: : : It is also possibly useful to bear in mind that Ms Robinson is not what might be described as an intellectual so could have thought she was saying something else.

: : : DFG

: : And even if she and any other writers involved are very clever, she's been attempting to come up with original barbs that are specifically related to the player being cut for over 1,000 episodes... the possibilities are bound to be getting a little thin.

:
: :a friend of mine had actually heard the phrase;she said it relates to 'Roman Catholicism',and is a Cof E/puritan term of abuse and is used for a stupid person.Prob from Mary's time.Parthian

If you read much about the Oxford Movement in Anglican Catholicism you can't help running across the phrase "gone over to Rome" in controversial use. It means the converting from Anglican to Roman Catholicism, and had only a pejorative bearing at first, but soon that depended on the sympathies of the one who uttered it, as the Roman Catholics adopted it without offense.

I can't imagine what Ann Robinson dreamed of meaning by it.