horse-thief, you old

   In Britain there are many speakers who would consider this is a typically American term of address, a point rather laboured by Pamela Hansford Johnson. In A Summer to Decide she writes: ‘Good to see you, Cran, you old horse thief. Isn’t that the correct transatlantic style of greeting? In An Error of Judgement she has: ‘“Well, Ted, you old horse thief,” he said, “which is, I believe, the way Americans greet one another.”’ In this instance Miss Johnson continues: ‘Ted told him that was the exception rather than the rule,’ which accurately describes the situation. The British view of American usage comes from their reading of such novels as Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis, where the following occurs:

   Paul and he shook hands solemnly; they smiled as shyly as though they had been parted three years, not three days - and they said:

   ‘How’s the old horse-thief?’

   ‘All right, I guess. How’re you, you poor shrimp?’

   ‘I’m first rate, you second-hand hunk o’ cheese.’

   Reassured thus of their high fondness, Babbitt grunted, ‘You’re a fine guy, you are! Ten minutes late!’

   This passage indicates clearly that ‘you old horse-thief’ is one of those friendly insults that can be used between intimates, especially when softened by ‘old’. It has been more generally used than the ‘second-hand hunk o’ cheese’ example quoted above, and is more striking to British eyes and ears than ‘you poor shrimp’, which British speakers might also use. ‘You old horse-thief’ is occasionally heard in Britain, used jokingly and normally with a specific reference to the USA.