α. (chiefly in sense A.) 1800s– got cher, 1800s– gotcher.
β. 1900s– got cha, 1900s– gotcha.
gotchaint.n.
/ˈɡɒtʃə/, U.S. /ˈɡɑtʃə/ A. int.
= ‘(I have) got you’ (see especially get v. 14a, 15d(a)), usually with omission of ‘have’ and frequently also of ‘I’.Esp. used to express satisfaction or triumph, or to indicate understanding.
ΚΠ
1859 Punch 1 Jan. 8/1 (caption to cartoon of Mr Punch kissing a girl under the mistletoe) Rooti-tooit [sic]—I've got cher!
1894 Illustr. Chips 10 Feb. 8/1 They are not boots at all—merely a couple of foot-warmers! (Yah! Gotcher there!).
1912 Washington Post 25 Feb. m5/5 Whoops, m' lads, I gotcher now.
1912 Nation 17 Oct. 350/1 Another witness testifies to the words of the man whose pistol had done the work. ‘I got cha,’ this efficient agent remarked with something of the craftsman's pride in a task well performed.
1932 E. Wallace When Gangs came to London xxii. 197 Its tail went down and it fell with a crash in the centre of the garden which occupied the middle of the square. ‘Gotcher!’ It was Jiggs' triumphant voice.
1966 H. Waugh Pure Poison (1967) xviii. 112 ‘You might try for a record of her blood type first. She claims it's O but she doesn't carry any card.’ Wilks sighed. ‘I gotcha.’
1982 Sun 4 May 1 (headline) Gotcha. Our lads sink gunboat and hole cruiser... They torpedoed the 14,000-ton..General Belgrano.
2002 L. Thompson Operation Green Thumbs i. 1 Ha ha. Gotcha! Gotcha! Alex got hiiiit! Alex got hiiiit!
B. n. Originally and chiefly U.S.
1. An exclamation of ‘gotcha’.
ΚΠ
1920 Living Age 5 June 616/2 Heaven help us, I thought, if these anthropoid ‘gotchas’ and ‘getchas’ are veritable reflections of our national speech!
1942 Field & Stream Aug. 29/2 There was a long silence, broken occasionally by the whisper of the rod, and then a triumphant ‘Gotcha!’ followed by considerable thrashing by the far bank.
1998 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Aug. 116/1 Expecting to emerge with a righteous ‘gotcha!’ to throw in his face, Jane instead felt overwhelmed with guilt.
2013 K. Robards Hunted xvii. 313 Her expression..was gloating, and her exclamation..roughly translated as a triumphant gotcha... She'd handcuffed him to the bed.
2.
a. College slang. An act of exposing one's buttocks, typically while bending over and shouting ‘gotcha!’; cf. moon v. 4a. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1952 Princeton Alumni Weekly 29 May 11/1 Two seniors played a game called ‘Gotcha’ with the entire class.
1961 Yale Daily News 23 Oct. 1/5 A gesture, commonly known as ‘gotcha’.., was allegedly flashed during a Saturday night party in a freshman's room.
1968 T. McGuane Sporting Club (1969) iii. 180 The Gotcha..had been thrown at a slow rate of speed from a car.., at a group of nuns and children.
1979 B. Gutchen New Girls 65 ‘Well, I've never seen anybody throw a Gotcha’... So he leaped on the table..and he pulls down his pants.
b. A practical joke; a prank.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > trickery, playing jokes > [noun] > a trick, prank, hoax
pratOE
mowa1393
pageant?c1430
jimp?1572
prank1576
jest1578
jig1592
frump1593
trick1605
bilk1664
fun1699
plisky1706
humbug1750
hum1751
practical joke1751
marlock1763
quiz1795
practical joke1804
skite1804
hoax1808
skit1815
wrinkle1817
rusty1835
funny business1838
string1851
stringer1851
cod1862
mank1865
spoof1889
leg-pull1893
rannygazoo1896
shenanigan1926
gotcha1967
to throw a fastball1968
wind-up1984
1967 Life 19 May 38/2 Schirra still enjoys pulling what he calls a ‘gotcha’ every chance he gets. The astronauts' nurse once asked him..for a urine sample, [and] came back..to find a five-gallon jug of warm water into which Schirra had dumped..iodine for coloring.
1979 L. Kingman Head over Wheels 18 They were always playing ‘Gotchas’ on each other.
1992 News (Frederick, Maryland) 15 Aug. a2/4 He's got one thing on his mind—pranks... He can hardly wait to pull a ‘gotcha’ on his..doctor.
2008 H. C. Johnson & I. A. O'Connor Scrappy xxi. 236 One night someone..played a gotcha on the entire base. When folks arrived for work the following morning they were greeted by a garbage can perched atop the flagpole.
3.
a. Esp. in journalism and politics: a (deliberate) act or instance of catching someone out, or of exposing a person or their actions to censure or ridicule; the practice of treating people in this way.
ΚΠ
1970 Boston Globe 6 Nov. 18/1 A gotcha for Tricky Dick [sc. Richard Nixon]... Let your guard down for an instant and you're suckered by his stealthiness.
1975 Progress (Clearfield, Pa.) 13 Dec. 4/2 The political game of ‘gotcha’.., when you catch..[your opponent] in a contradiction or an untruth.
1980 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Mar. a1/4 (heading) KGB claims a ‘gotcha’ in the game of espionage.
1990 Financial Post (Canada) (Nexis) 12 Jan. i. 11 Barry can mutter misquote all he likes; it sounds like a ‘gotcha’ to me.
1998 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Jrnl. 18 Feb. a10/2 This issue transcends an exchange of partisan gotchas.
2002 Time 30 Dec. 47/3 Internal auditors, by definition, work in pursuit of a gotcha.
b. An unforeseen (esp. technical) problem or difficulty; a pitfall; spec. (Computing) a counterintuitive or complex feature of a program or system which causes users unexpected difficulty.
ΚΠ
1974 Approach Oct. 26/3 All fixed-wing pilots should be aware that rotor heads can throw a ‘gotcha’ your way.
1979 InfoWorld 11 June 7/3 Contestants must submit..a list of any problems or ‘gotcha's’, and a listing of necessary interface software.
1988 Amer. Banker (Nexis) 29 June The regulation, he said, contains a laundry list of ‘gotchas’ that would trip up most institutions.
1989 UnixWorld Sept. 125/3 You've discovered one of the ‘gotchas’ of Bourne shell programming.
2002 PR Newswire (Nexis) 11 Feb. This is a huge service to us in planning for and understanding the potential 'gotchas' before they happen.
2012 A. Osmani Learning JavaScript Des. Patterns xiii. 201 What methods and options does the plug-in support? Does it have any gotchas that users need to be aware of?
Compounds
C1. General attributive, with the sense ‘that expresses triumph or satisfaction’, as gotcha grin, gotcha look, gotcha smile, etc.
ΚΠ
1923 Two Bells 4 Oct. 4/4 After being greeted with a ‘Now-I-gotcha’ smile, [etc.].]
1954 Sewanee Rev. 62 462 The ace's guns began chattering.., and the camera offered a close-up of the smiling, irresponsible face.., a ‘gotcha’ smile curling his lips.
1976 Daily Rev. (Hayward, Calif.) 17 Oct. 8/3 The boy sorts through his wallet and finally produces a card..with a ‘gotcha’ grin on his face.
1982 Washington Post 28 July a21/1 ‘Where's the joke?’ The cabbie gave me his ‘gotcha’ look and said: ‘The joke is, it's not a joke.’
1999 Philadelphia Inquirer (Nexis) 12 Apr. e1 Olazabal..[made] his birdie putt..dead center, earning an exchange of ‘gotcha’ gestures with Norman.
2002 Washington Post 24 Mar. (Mag. section) 9 He gave a gotcha laugh—‘Just kidding!’
2010 J. Kramer Silencing Sam iv. 23 Instead of the look of a broken newsman.., Sam had a proud ‘gotcha’ look on his face.
C2. attributive in sense B. 3a, as gotcha game, gotcha journalism, gotcha politics, gotcha question, etc.
ΚΠ
1971 Chicago Tribune 23 Dec. (Metro South ed.) 1a/7 We can hide behind the bushes and play the ‘I gotcha’ game until speeders get the message.]
1974 Women's Wear Daily 13 Mar. 8/3 One..salesman..has been hit by the tax men. He says ‘They..just play a “gotcha” game.’
1982 Los Angeles Times 28 May i. 9/2 (caption) ‘Gotcha!’ journalism: a sampling of the unabashed British tabloids.
1993 Life June 39/1 The Torquemada of television..skewered his victim with gotcha questions.
1999 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 13 Sept. 12/5 I do feel strongly..about gotcha politics, about intrusiveness.
2015 P. Di Justo This is what you just put in your Mouth ii. 251 I sent him a few sample questions so he would have an idea what we were going to talk about (I'm really not into gotcha journalism unless I catch someone in a lie).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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int.n.1859