The "soul patch"

[Wilson Gray]

On Jun 19, 2005, at 10:06 AM, Orin Hargraves wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Orin Hargraves <orinkh at CARR.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: The "soul patch"
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>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: The "soul patch"
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> . . .
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>> Here's a differently named, contemporaneous description, courtesy
>> HDAS:
>>
>> 1956 E. Hunter _Second Ending_ 342: Dizzy Gillespie...wears a
>> little beard here under his lip, a sort of a goatee, a little
>> triangular thing. We call it a "Dizzy kick" in the trade.
>>
>> Jesse Sheidlower
>> OED
>

That sounds more obscure and, therefore, more hip than "soul patch."
However, as the author notes, "Dizzy kick" was used by people in the
trade. For those of us outside the trade, there was no term for it. I
read "soul patch" somewhere or other, so I have no idea of its actual
currency.

Speaking of Dizzy kicks/soul patches, how about the one that Frank
Zappa wore?

-Wilson Gray


> The term I learned for this growth, circa 1982 from a Californian, was
> "womb
> broom".
>
> Orin Hargraves
>

I learned that as a term for "mustache" ca.1952 in St. Louis. Another
term in use at the same place at the same time for the same thing was
"tissy puckler," still the funniest Spoonerism that I've ever heard in
real life, given that it was spoken  by the same speaker who, seconds
before, had just introduced us to "womb broom." Also, a man who wore a
mustache was said to "fight fire with fire."

-Wilson Gray