Antedating of "Bangs"

[Wilson Gray]

On 3/27/06, David Bowie <db.list at pmpkn.net> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Bangs"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> From:    Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>
> > But doesn't "bang" have the same sexual connotation in Yankspeak? I
> vaguely
> > remember a frat drinking song from the '50's that went something like:
>
> > I banged her once
> > And I banged her twice
> > And I banged her once too often
> > Something something something something
> > And now she's in her coffin
>
> Yeah, but these are all verbs--and for me, if you exclude explosions and
> drum-beating and such, nominal "bangs" primarily means hair, nominal
> "bang" is primarily sexual, and verbal "bang(s)" is primarily sexual. In
> fact, it's difficult to impossible for "bang" (whether verbal or
> nominal) to mean hair for me.


I concede your point. The song cited is, in fact, the only non-literary use
of "bang" in the sexual sense that I'm aware of. This use doesn't exist in
BE, not for speakers of my generation, anyway. Well, a brothuh my age might
have said "banged up my short" instead of "fucked up my short." But here, of
course, neither term has its sexual meaning.

-Wilson

I hadn't thought of the importance of the -s before now--does anyone
> else have this distinction? Also, anyone on here with British intuitions
> who can tell us whether there's a bang/bangs distinction for nouns?
>
> <snip>
>
> --
> David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>      Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>      house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>      chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
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