Fireplug; LA Times & Chicago Tribune

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Ditto,


I haven't called one of this things a fireplug for years, but
remember it from my Louisville-area youth (with the stylistic
distinction arnold points out). Since then, I have used it to refer
only to some especially squat linebackers and fullbacks (but somehow
missed the penile sense).

dInIs

>On Feb 4, 2004, at 6:01 PM, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>>FIREPLUG
>>
>>...   I've very, very, very rarely heard "fireplug."
>
>interesting.  i'm significantly older than barry, but not so far in
>geographical origins from him.  and when i was a kid (long long ago, in
>southeastern pennsylvania), "fireplug" was to "fire hydrant" as "car"
>was to "automobile"  (and only "fireplug" had metaphorical extensions,
>to body type or penis shape, for instance).  now, i think, the
>originally more technical-register term has pretty well covered the
>territory, except of course for those conventionalized metaphorical
>uses.
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)