Off pat & Off your own bat
Any ideas as to the origins of these?
The alphabetical meanings-and-origins list on this website explains "on your Pat" as "on your own" (Cockney or Irish rhyming slang: "on your Pat Malone"). Maybe our British friends can tell us whether "off pat" is related. The Oxford Engl. Dict. traces "off his own bat" to cricket: "in reference to the score made by a player's own hits" and, figuratively, "solely by his own exertions, by himself."
Replies
- Off pat & Off your own bat anna 07/24/01
- Off pat & Off your own bat James Briggs 06/06/01
- Off pat, down pat R. Berg 06/06/01