"88," White Power for "Heil Hitler"

[Dennis R. Preston]

AHA! "Baby let me bang your box" finally lets me ask a
lexical-phrasal etymological question.

This is a true story:

Just the other day, at a large Midwestern institution, a Dean and her
minions were thinking of clever ways to raise money for the Music
Dept. One Deanling or another suggested "More Band for your Buck."
The suggestion was received with usual Deanlingly nods and muttering
approval.

All looked good until another Dealing opined that she had heard (and
had been excoriated by a linguist for using it!) that the phrase on
which this money-getting slogan was modeled had its origins in
prostitution: the more you paid, the more "bang" you got. In another
story, which is much too ribald for this list, I could tell you how
the Dean tried (and failed) to get in touch with the linguist on
campus who might be most likely to know the answer, but I resist the
temptation.

Now I have no doubt that if "bang for your buck" is a folk etymology
(as relates to prostitution or even more general sexual activity -
e.g., one paid a lot for wine and dinner and was more likely to be
sexually rewarded) that would not in the least lessen the fact that
many modern speakers might perceive it that way (and a quick,
unscientific survey shows that to be the case, at least
generationally; my secretary, about umpteen odd years younger than
me, immediately gave it that interpretation).

What, however, is the etymological fact (if we know)? In the back of
my mind lurks a military-explosives origin, not a sexual one.

dInIs

>At 4:53 PM -0400 8/28/02, Mark A Mandel wrote:
>>On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Grant Barrett wrote:
>>
>>#"Thanks to Target, the nationwide department-store chain, students
>>#across the country may be heading back to school in hip-looking white
>>#supremacist regalia. The retail giant is selling shorts and baseball
>>#caps splashed with “EIGHT EIGHT” and “88” – white-power code for “Heil
>>#Hitler,” because “h” is the eighth letter of the alphabet."
>>#
>>#What does this mean to me, who graduated high school in 1988, and
>>#during the high school class battles, used to shout, "88 is great!"?
>>
>>Or to ham radio users, who have used 88 as a code for "Love and kisses"
>>(originally in Morse Code) for many years?
>>
>>Or to piano players? IIRC, Mandy Patinkin played the role of the piano
>>player, "Eighty-eight" Keys, in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"
>>
>>Or, relatedly, to jazz singers?
>>         Baby, let me bang your box,
>>         Baby, let me bang your box.
>>         Baby, let me play your eighty-eight,
>>         Let me play it till the whole house rocks!
>>
>>-- Mark A. Mandel
>
>Some of which 88 keys are white, and some black, all playing together
>in peaceful harmony (and each set pretty boring on its own).  Does
>make you wonder.
>
>Larry

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736