Pimp talk

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Thu Mar 9 01:47:58 UTC 2006


On 3/6/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> OK, but does "a whole lot of witches jumpin' ship" make any contextual sense?
>
>   In an old Halloween seafarin' song, sure...

I haven't seen "Hustle & Flow" but apparently the original line, which
is repeated throughout the movie, is "a whole lot of bitches jumpin'
ship" (something about the hookers jumping from one pimp to another).
It's mentioned in various reviews:

http://www.premiere.com/article.asp?article_id=2219
http://www.dailynews.com/filmreviews/ci_2879377
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1699

So the only word that was changed was "bitches" to "witches" (see other post).


--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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