Quote:
Originally Posted by cathexis
Fixing (fittin, fixen) verb
Primarily used in the South, a regional dialect. Fixing popularly means getting ready to. An example would be, " I'm fixing to go to the store." It doesn't indicate any time or urgency in keeping with the more leisurely pace of the traditional South.
This word's etymology is truly American or as it is called, "an Americanism."
Webster - paraphrasing defines it as to prepare or to set/place in the manner most desired.
Farmer, John "Americanisms - Old and New, "called fix the hardest worked word in the 'American language.'" Farmer also notes that fixed could mean ready.
OED - defines fixing as making preparations for in def. 14a and 14b.
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I think a lot of idioms or expressions are regional! When I moved to Milwaukee, people would constantly say they were "going to go by" either someplace or someone which I soon found out meant they were actually going to that place of person NOT just going or driving by...
