Judge Joe Brown redux

[Wilson Gray]

It was my honor.

-Wilson

On May 17, 2005, at 8:30 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Judge Joe Brown redux
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> Thanks, Wilson.  Again.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Judge Joe Brown redux
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> On May 17, 2005, at 2:46 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: Re: Judge Joe Brown redux
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>> Wilson, are these familar terms from your (now legendary) youth ?
>> They only went mainstream in the mid sixties or early seventies.
>>
>> JL
>>
>
> "Down" as a verb is older than my ability to speak and understand
> English. "Give slack" I first heard in 1954. The speaker was a rogue
> and bully - Booker Graves - that I was once unfortunately acquainted
> with back in St. Louis. He didn't bully me because I was so "heavy"
> that I commanded respect. But he did bully a friend of mine, whom he
> addressed and referred to as "Girl."
>
> "Heavy" - long form - "heavy on top" - was applied to someone one was
> recognized as an "intellectual." As a street term, "intellectual"
> meant, "gets a lot of A's, reads books without pictures in them, and
> has a huge store of esoteric knowledge that, though useless on the
> street, is, nevertheless, stunningly impressive. You can ask anything
> and get the answer." "Heavy" referred to the weight of the knowledge
> borne by the person and "on top" specified that the weight was in the
> form of knowledge contained in the person's brain.
>
> Booker was also my source for "tighten up/lighten up." The two phrases
> were only trivially distinct in those days in St. Louis.
>
> -Wilson
>
>
>
>> Wilson Gray wrote:
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: Judge Joe Brown redux
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>> I've noticed that the judge, though he's younger than I, nevertheless
>> uses slang terms in their older, "correct" forms and not in their more
>> modern, "corrupted" forms. (For those with no sense of humor, I'm
>> writing with tongue in cheek.)
>>
>> For example, the good judge doesn't "put someone down" (which normally
>> means to "break off a relationship with someone), he "downs" [i.e.
>> "insults"] someone. He doesn't "cut someone slack," he "_gives_
>> someone
>> slack."
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>
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>
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