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May 27, 2011 · "Fixing to" works in just the same way: when you're fixing to do something, you are preparing to do it, or as you say, you're getting ready to do it. I imagine that that sense of "fix" as "adjust or arrange" is how we got phrases like "I fixed dinner" in the first place, and "fixing to" is an extension of that usage.
The following is a map comes from a recent Yale Grammatical Diversity Project Survey. It shows the average acceptability of 5 fixin' to sentences (on a scale of 1-5) among our survey participants. While fixin' to was found to be fairly acceptable across the country, it was judged especially acceptable in the South.
Mar 10, 2012 · The OED ’s first example of “fixing to” is from Norman Ellsworth Eliason’s 1956 book Tarheel Talk: An Historical Study of the English Language in North Carolina to 1860: “Aunt Lizy is just fixing to go to church.” (The example is dated 1854-55.)
The rise of the futurate verbal periphrasis be fixing to + V shows an essentially textbook example of grammaticization, not so different in many ways from the development of be going to. However, there are some important differences too.
The expression has developed in english for over six centuries, from a concrete transitive verb of Latin origin, through intransitive phases that included complements of either for + gerund...
Feb 1, 2014 · The expression has developed in English for over six centuries, from a concrete transitive verb of Latin origin, through intransitive phases that included complements of either for + gerund or nonfinite verb phrases, and eventually to a quasi-modal with both deontic and epistemic senses of assessment, acknowledgement, and response to compelling ...
Dec 4, 2023 · The internet had some theories on the origins of the phrase and it said an archaic meaning of “fix” is “to prepare.” One reason Southerners love “fixin’ to” is that it’s vague. It doesn’t have to mean “about to do something in the next 10 seconds.” Or even the next hour or next day.
