benny/HDAS

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Wed Jun 15 21:38:00 UTC 2005


Thanks for the kind words, Neil.  But do you have copies in your car as well?  Red lights, stop signs, and traffic jams afford numerous opportunities to consult and peruse.

As for the Sanders cite with the meaning "condom."  "Benny," as HDAS also observes, was once not uncommon as a slang term for an overcoat (cf. much earlier "Benjamin," a greatcoat).   Thus the transfer to "condom" (cf. syn."raincoat").

JL


neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: neil
Subject: Re: benny/HDAS
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Of course, I am a privileged householder who has both volumes of HDAS, an
indispensable resource of recondite knowledge, meticulously researched (why,
oh why, did RH give up on the most important slang survey in our life
time?).

And now to lower the tone, as some of you who recognise my postings may
expect:

Benny =- condom

"Ed, that thing you put on - will that keep me from having a baby?" -- "The
benny? Sure - unless someone sneaked in here and poked a hole in it."
--Lawrence Sanders, 'The Dream Lover', 1978 [New English Library, London,
1986, 206]

benny = sexually aroused (m)

'The throbbing of the penis I have heard referred to as 'clocky', 'ticky' or
'benny' (obvious references to the ticking of a clock).'
--J.W., 'The Language of mastirbation', in 'The Sex Life Letters (Harold &
Ruth greenwald, eds), Grafton books, London, 1974, 265

--Neil Crawford


on 15/6/05 9:07 pm, Jonathan Lighter at wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: benny?
>
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>
> "Benny" has been in use for several decades as a slang term for "a benefit."
>
> HDAS has an illuminating entry. All households should own at least one copy
> of the two volumes that have appeared.
>
> JL
>
> Rachel Shuttlesworth wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Rachel Shuttlesworth
> Subject: benny?
>
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>
> From a story in the Chicago Tribune, located at
> http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0506150258jun15,1,6069459.st
> ory?page=2
>
> "We don't really talk about healthy anywhere in our restaurant,"
> Hirshberg said. "That's very intentional. Not because it isn't. We want
> them to enjoy the food for the food, and then to feel that health is a
> benny."
>
> I can find "benny" in the OED meaning overcoat and Benzedrine. Trying to
> find other examples of this usage online brings up Benny's Hinn, Hill,
> Goodman, etc. I found one case of British slang where "benny" is defined
> as losing one's temper
> (http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/fullmonty/def/benny.htm). What is its
> meaning above? Is it being used to mean "added benefit" or something else?
>
> --
> ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
>
> Dr. Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
> CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow
> University of Alabama Libraries
> Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0266
> Office: 205.348.4655/ Fax:205.348.8833
> rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu
>
>


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