Sergey
"They're gonna come here guns a-blazing" What is "a-blazing"? Hello! I've seen this sentence in a movie (in captions): "They're gonna come here guns a-blazing". I was wondering if "a-blazing" is just short for "all blazing"? Not the first time I see words with "a-" but can't remember any other examples. Thank you!
Jul 15, 2019 3:21 AM
Answers · 5
3
"guns-a-blazing" is just saying "guns blazing" with a heavy and old fashioned Tennessee accent. Take this scene from Sargent York for example... https://youtu.be/N7lzNAj_hcY?t=3675 This Tennessee accent adds "a" to the front of many words. "was-a-figurin" "ain't nobody-a-holdin ya" "Nate was-a-thinkin" "I'm-a-askin' you for the job" "I was-a-buyin' that land just to spite you"
July 15, 2019
3
It originated from "guns all blazing", but it's idiomatic meaning is a little different. When you say 'guns a-blazing' you are injecting a little humour (rightly or wrongly) or sarcasm into a situation where guns are being fired almost comicly in a repeated,noisy, and somewhat haphazard (not accurate) fashion - Similar to a western movie where a gunslinger comes out and fires repeatedly and noisily at someone in the street. If you said 'guns all blazing' there is no obvious injection of humor. So while 'guns a-blazing' has it's origins in 'guns all blazing' the expressions say different things.
July 15, 2019
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