When did people start putting quotation marks around some phrases?

[EmpressaurusOfTheScathingTinsel]

I’m seeing this sort of thing more & more & I don’t really get why the ‘ ‘ is there:

She didn’t ’get it’

We ‘dropped in’ on my sister

I ‘got away with it’

It ‘put me off’ going

They ‘messed up’

Is this a new thing? I wondered if it was a sign of AI posts at first but then saw names I recognised doing it. Just curious really.

I mean IMO you might when using informal phrases as part of formal writing. In informal writing (like Mumsnet!) it feels like hypercorrection…I haven’t specifically noticed it though!

Not a new thing at all. In fact, we have recovered, slightly, as a society, from the period when it infiltrated the spoken word, in the form of the hated air quotes finger gesture,

But the air quotes thing implies one is saying something with an extra layer of meaning, which the OP’s example doesn’t. Eg I might use air quotes if saying someone ‘met with an accident’ - because it wasn’t an accident.

I used them earlier today, when I was describing my ex having a "brain hemorrhage" or "heart attack " to avoid going somewhere he didn't want to go. Because, obviously, he wasn't. It was shorthand, rather than having to explain.

No idea whether it's grammatically correct or crap!

I've noticed this recently too OP. Makes no sense at all!

I would read those as:

She didn't 'get it' = I think she understood, but was pretending not to

We 'dropped in' on my sister = I tried numerous times to arrange something, but sis is difficult to communicate with or forgot we were coming

I 'got away with it' = I don't believe I did anything wrong, so don't think there should have been any repercussions anyway

It 'put me off' going = I was looking for an excuse not to go, and this was it

They 'messed up' = they are presenting what they did as a mistake and minimising it. The actual did something quite serious and possibly deliberate.

So basically the ' .... ' is saying, I'll use this phase to be polite or because that is how someone else has described it, but it's not actually what I think.

OK, this is really interesting - thanks @Sittykitty & @Sprogonthetyne. I think next time I see it in use, I’ll ask.

Is it single or double
quotiation marks you’ve noticed? Just out of curiosity. The double ones have afaik been used for many years by people who think they are emphasising by doing so (instead of making a phrase sound insincere or layered with double meaning as in the “met with an accident” above). But your examples don’t seem to fit that mold quite.

I think it’s been a mix and tbh it’s never seemed to be in the ironic or double meaning sense, although I think I could have missed that.

It comes across more as being used to mark a colloquial or slightly unusual phrase. The ones I listed are all ones I remember from the past few weeks but couldn’t tell you which threads - next time I see one I’ll quote it here.

Well I definitely do that, I have to go over emails sometimes before I send so I don’t sound like miss Climpson. You’re examples aren’t that unusually colloquial I think so it does sound miss Climpson-esque ;) Look forward to more examples :)

I loved Miss Climpson!