A Common Expression

On the radio this morning -- a great source of inspiration for me -- there was an interview with a person who used an interesting and relatively new expression, one that I've also heard on television and in movies. The person was talking about the recent troubles on the Shanghai stock market and said:

"And that's when the first problems started, then it all went south and the government shut trading down."

To go south could be understood from this context to mean "to fall apart" and it does. But what is the origin of this term? Dictionary.com, quite a good source, lists its origin in the 19th century, when outlaws would "go south" of the border to Mexico or even to Texas -- at the time more or less a no-man's land between the U.S. and Mexico -- to escape punishment and likely death by hanging. It also mentions that Native Americans believed that after death, a person's soul would head toward the south.

Some examples from the press:

All my efforts to collect my Southern Rail tickets went south

The Guardian, December 21, 2015

But after leaving their friends, Maliza and Romo bickered and the night went south, sources said.

The Daily Beast, January 7, 2016

Like many Detroit cultural organizations, the 88-year-old Music Hall’s fiscal situation went south right after the 2008 financial collapse.

The Detroit News, January 7, 2016

The experiment went south for several reasons, starting with they way it was designed.

USA Today, January 7, 2016

And finally, a very graphic (not for the faint hearted, with lots of blood!) example of the expression from Seth McFarlane and his movie A Million Ways to Die in the West:

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