>"Hacked off," they say, comes from the C19th slang verb "hack", to annoy...<...SNIP...>.... They date the phrase "hack it" to "C20th"<
That's very interesting and seems to clinch the answer to the original question. Many thanks.
As for uckers, UWAS studes were simply the best. Who are ULAS anyway? Who won the Drooper Trophy most years <g> ?
John