Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. euph. synon. for sexual intercourse.

1770		D. Gunston (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 66: [He] shoves her up against a door, and began to do so and so with her.
1929		Williams & Spivey ‘Furniture Man Blues’ 🎵 [Johnson:] If I crawl around mama, will you let me park? / [Spivey:] Yes, and we’ll do some business / [...] / [Johnson] And when I get you, mama, we will do so-and-so.

2. (also so-and-such, such-and-such) an unspecified person, often constr. with Mr/Miss/Mrs etc.

1825		T.C. Croker Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1862) 30: Describing a female beauty, an Irish peasant may perhaps say, that Peggy So-and-so is a pretty girl.
1830		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 11: When Mr. So-and-So brought the roast pig on the table.
1836		M. Scott Cruise of the Midge I 233: Mrs So-and-so, and Miss Thingamy.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I 184: He heard it openly talked of at the Club by So-and-so and T’other.
1852		Kendal Mercury 24 Jan. 6/1: A very graphic account of his feelings on listening to the preaching of the Rev. So-and-so.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 67: Then came wonderings as to what ‘So-and-so’ was doing.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 21: How changed Mrs. So-and-so is! I should hardly have known her.
1861		H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 280/2: I have just met Mrs. So-and-so, and spent nearly all my money.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 52: Write to So-and-so for so much, and have it directed to you.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 80: Sir Thingamy So-and-so.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 23 May 10/3: Here Lies / So and So. / Born, —. Died, —. / If this is the end, he has lived his life / With much of travail and sin and strife, / And now is quiet.
1886		Stephens & Yardley in Little Jack Sheppard 31: 🎵 Lord So-and-so bolted with Thingummy’s wife.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 154: Why, that’s Judge so-and-so.
1891		G.R. Sims ‘A Facon de Parler’ Dagonet Ditties 109: If I write to a friend on a matter that’s grave, / And denounce so-and-so as a rascally knave.
1893		H. Lawson ‘An Old Mate of Your Father’s’ in Roderick (1972) 66: She called the old mate Mr So-and-So, and father called him Bill.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 84: ‘If So-and-So, and So-and-So,’ etc., and he mentioned the names of certain Boston people.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 297: ‘My friend So-and-So’ – mentioning a well-known literary man – ‘is a fool.’.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 5/6: Then if So-and-So are willing, / And his are a married life [etc].
1915		‘Sapper’ Michael Cassidy 23: ‘Mr So-and-so [...] You aren’t be any means udner the delusion [etc]’.
1916		B.E.F. Times 1 Dec. (2006) 131/2: Leave the Tommy alone Mr. James So-and-Such.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 60: Who, hearing of the dry fact that So-and-So was hanged, can possibly conjure up for himself all the mental tortures of poor So-and-So.
1930		D. Ahearn Confessions of a Gunman 216: Hello, so and so, you want a gun?
1942		W. Winchell On Broadway 17 Mar. [synd. col.] The Gov’t [...] sent for the Soandso the other day and read the riot and espionage act of 1917 to him.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 93: If you took John So-and-So from the lipping-press and put him six fathoms down [...] would the firm miss a beat.
1951		H. Williams ‘I Wish You Didn’t Love Me So Much’ 🎵 You say ‘It’s ‘cause I love you,’ you little such-and-such / I’m beginning to wish you didn’t love me so much.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 124: There’s so-and-so , he’d shout.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 94: A circular detailing the merits of So-and-so’s combs and cutters.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 37: I can hear so-and-so’s mill whistle.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 363: He started working for Brother So-and-So down at his rib joint.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 23: How can she do it to those poor so-and-so’s!
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 95: Every letter I get from my mother, she tells me how So-and-so’s thinking about moving out there to join them.
1997		(con. 1950s) D. Farson Never a Normal Man 120: Ian, look who’s just come in, it’s old so and so (having forgotten his name).
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 17: Watching children flick skelly caps over the sidewalk epitaphs where so-and-so’s nigger got dropped.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 11: Rumours and smears and did-you-hear-the-one-about so-and-so.
2012		R. Milward Kimberly’s Capital Punishment (2023) 422: When Sean sees the state of so-and-so, the sod sobs.

3. an unspecified object, action or place; thus in v. use (see cite 1953).

1906		C. Fowler letter 18 Feb. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 45: Of course, a majority of the men violate the Regulations every day, but they are not caught at it, most of the time, and, when a man does go up to the mast, and an officer says that he has done so & so [...] the man is guilty .
1922		John O’London’s Weekly 22 Feb. 571: You have heard the charge of So-and-so.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 25: Different men announce that they were headed for so and so and that the freight starts at such a time.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 145: You mean the time you almost got your brains blew out getting shot in the so-and-so?
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 50: Come along to the so-and-so for a drink: it’s the only place where they can mix a so-and-so.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 196: The cowardly soandsoes ought to be soandsoed and soandsoed.
1992		M. Frayn Now You Know 83: Everyone’s saying ‘Get me so-and-so, get me this, get me that’.
2010		K. Richards Life 64: Mick says I’ve got to get to so-and-so.

4. a euph. for any derog. name, esp. sonofabitch n.

1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 261: Oh, you go and hang yourself, you So-and-so.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 25: ‘You little so-and-so!’ said Liza, somewhat inelegantly, making a dash at him.
1927		R. Lardner ‘Hurry Kane’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 103: ‘Yellow so-and-so’ was the mildest name Hurry got called.
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 223: He regretted that he had no bullets to spare on so-and-so so-and-sos.
1939		P. Gallagher My Story 64: Shut the door, you bloody So-and-So.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 20: I’ll show those so-and-sos something.
1944		E. Wilson 11 Mar. [synd. col.] ‘I made up my mind then no so-and-so would keep us like that’ [i.e. in poverty].
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 16: You’re a filthy little so-and-so, ain’t yer?
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 43: They give themselves airs, these soandsos.
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 365: What I was gonna tell you, said Monkey, / Is you square old so-and-so, If you fool with me I’ll get / Elephant to whip your head some more.
1959		J. Gosling Ghost Squad 179: You’ve only been nipping me regularly for fourteen years. You’re a mumping old so-and-so.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 60: I had a job, but I couldn’t help being peeved at Kim, the clever so-and-so.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 174: They think you are a stuck-up so-and-so because you’ve got intelligence, because you want to improve yourself.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 225: The avaricious little so-and-so, ain’t she ever going to be satisfied?
1983		S. May No Exceptions in Best Radio Plays (1984) 115: Roger — the little so-and-so.
1985		B. Robinson Aussie Bull 15: [A] type of mongrel so-and-so he hadn’t met before.
1999		Observer Mag. 18 July 54: I used to be a grumpy old so-and-so.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] Its money in the bank you dimiwtted so and so.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 223: At last! A bit of appreciation from the hard-faced pair of so-and-sos.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 176: [U]gly so-and-sos no proud fellow would want to roughly roger.