Talk:messages

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See Talk:message. - -sche (discuss) 17:37, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

do the messages

Apparently my grandparents (Northern Ireland + Australia) used the set phrase do the messages, with the logic (or is this folk etymology?) that a list of groceries and/or errands ("6 eggs; repair shoes; ...") was written down, thus comprising a "message" — often "done" upon being passed on to one of their children.

Some justification at [1], with also a claim of usage in New Zealand. Plus also apparently the OED supports/emphasises this phrasing.

I'm Irish, and the older generation generally never say "go shopping", they always say "do the messages".

Similarly at [2]:

Irish also call “Grocery Shopping” going for the messages. It comes from sending your children “on a message” which is what we might call an errand. When you bring the groceries back from the store they become “the messages”.

In Montreal a similar usage may have developed with French influence [3]:

The oldest meaning of the word errand is “message,” “news,” or “tidings.” In modern Scots, someone doing errands is said to go the messages, and a shopping bag might be called a message bag.

I will add a usage note.

—DIV (1.152.106.191 00:11, 17 January 2024 (UTC))