Etymology Journal · F
Fancy meeting you here
Meaning
- A friendly way to acknowledge someone you bump into unexpectedly in public. It is lighthearted and often used when you are genuinely surprised to see a friend in an unusual place.
Cheerful, social
Used in a sentence
- Fancy meeting you here at the hardware store on a Saturday morning.
- I looked up from the produce aisle and said fancy meeting you here.
- Fancy meeting you here while we are both trying to escape the office for lunch.
The backstory
This is an idiomatic greeting that emerged in the late 19th century. It relies on the irony of acting as though a chance encounter is a high-society social invitation.
Heard in
Nationwide
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