"stinkfinger"

[Wilson Gray]

>From the OED On Line:

"*To play at *stinkfinger*,..to grope a woman."

Is this really all that "to play at stinkfinger" means to white people?!
Of course, it could be simply the case that "correcting" BE [stEiNkfEiN@]
to "stinkfinger" in spelling does not mean that its meaning is necessarily
the
same as that of stinkfinger. Or, perhaps, the problem is due to my
interpreting
"to grope a woman" to mean merely "to cop a feel."

-Wilson


On 3/15/06, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      "stinkfinger"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Another tidbit from the gutter press.
>
> Stinkfinger.  [signature to a letter to the editor]  The Flash, October
> 31, 1841 (I:1) p. 3, col. 4
>
> OED (to play at stinkfinger): 1903, 1934; Cassell's 2nd: late 19C
>
> There is nothing in the text of the letter to make a direct connection
> with playing at stinkfinger; just the same. . . .
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
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