During a conversation with Slim, George explains how Lennie got them into some trouble in Weed. After Slim assures George that he won't say a word, George tells him that Lennie saw a girl wearing a red dress that he wanted to touch. George explains to Slim that Lennie enjoys touching soft things and simply wanted to feel the dress. When Lennie grabbed her dress, the girl screamed, and Lennie panicked. Lennie was so scared that he grasped harder onto the girl's dress as she continued to scream. Fortunately, George was standing close by and was able to run over to see what was happening. When George saw that Lennie was not letting go of the dress, he hit Lennie over the head with a fence picket until he let go. Following the incident, the girl told the authorities that Lennie raped her. George and Lennie were then forced to hide out in an irrigation ditch to avoid a lynch mob before they were able to escape. George insists that Lennie wasn't trying to harm the girl and blames Lennie's actions on his mental disability.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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