by, preposition

Origin:
English, AfrikaansShow more English, influenced by Afrikaans by beside, with, at.
‘At’; ‘beside’, ‘alongside’, ‘near’, ‘in’, ‘with’, or ‘to’.
Note:
Less common among first-language speakers of English than among those who speak English as a second language.
1822 J. Hancock Diary. 80Was he at the shooting match by your place.
1872 ‘Y.’ in Cape Monthly Mag. V. Sept. 182We often hear such expressions as ‘by the house,’ meaning ‘at home’.
1872 in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 284‘I saw him by Mr Smith’s house’ has a frightfully adhesive force.
1891 J.P. Legg in Cape Illust. Mag. I. 95The little word ‘by’ is often used in a way foreign to English proper as ‘by the station,’ or ‘by the house.’ This of course is a direct translation of the Dutch Idiom.
1913 Muir College Mag. in Weekend Post 9 Mar., 1974 2Don’t say that you have done your exercise, when you have not, but that you left it ‘by’ the house.
1916 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984) 201Maria: I must have my money, baas. Van K: I can’t pay. Maria: Then I go by the court.
1928 N. Stevenson Afr. Harvest 183You can speak freely. Uncle Frikkie is by Burghersrust. I am alone.
1965 J. Bennett Hawk Alone 168The sergeant there by Sandflats says he started her up to bring her in and she’s run a bearing so bad it sounds like it’s coming through the block.
1972 Grocott’s Mail 17 Mar. 4Pigeon loft, R70. Can be viewed by 58 Somerset Street.
1979 W. Ebersohn Lonely Place 70‘Where did you live then?’ ‘By old-boss Marthinus farm, my boss.’
1984 S. Gray Three Plays 133I can’ stand being a Boer anymore, I mus’ work so hard! I want to be an Afrikaner and live by the city.
1986 W. Schärf et al. in Burman & Reynolds Growing Up 262A stroller is someone who don’t sleep by his house — he sleeps in the street. He don’t eat by his house — he eats by the bins.
1991 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)‘Where are your children now?’ ‘By my husband.’
‘At’; ‘beside’, ‘alongside’, ‘near’, ‘in’, ‘with’, or ‘to’.
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idiomatic
BWB, nounn.by-and-by, nounn.
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