
History has not only recorded the play Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated, we even know the line of the play that was uttered before Booth fired the fatal shot: "I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sockdologizing old man-trap."
If you're scratching your head at what this means, here's the context, provided by the Washington Post. The hero was being courted by a Mrs. Mountchessington to marry her daughter, believing, falsely, that he was rich. When the jig is up, he offers to marry her for love, but she's having none of it, providing the setup for the line.
According to Spire, to call someone "sockdologizing" is to accuse them of haranguing or beleaguering someone, at least, in this particular context. And "old man-trap" doesn't really need explaining. In other words, the hero was calling his adversary a crabby old biddy. Classic 19th-century humor, and all that.
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