"Give me some sugar" ... alive and well

Dan Lassiter lassiter at NYU.EDU
Wed Dec 19 06:57:46 UTC 2007


There's a Nina Simone song called "Sugar in my bowl" that suggests that the
meaning of 'sugar' might be broader than just 'kiss' among certain speakers
(though she uses 'a little sugar' and not 'some sugar'). Also, there's the
Def Leppard song "Pour some sugar on me", which doesn't seem to be about
just kissing.

Here are the lyrics to Nina's song:

I want a little sugar in my bowl
I want a little sweetness down in my soul
I could stand some lovin' oh so bad
Feel so lonely and I feel so sad

I want a little steam on my clothes
Maybe I could fix things up so they'll go
Whatsa matter Daddy Come on, save my soul
Drop a little sugar in my bowl
I ain't foolin'
Drop a little sugar in my bowl

Well I want a little sugar in my bowl
Well I want a little sweetness down in my soul
You been acting strangely I've been told
Move me Daddy
I want some sugar in my bowl

I want a little steam on my clothes
Maybe I can fix things up so they'll go
Whatsa matter Daddy
Come on save my soul
Drop a little sugar in my bowl I ain't foolin'
Drop some sugar- yeah- in my bowl.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:16:29 -0600
From:    Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU>
Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well

Some sugar = 'a kiss.'


On Dec 18, 2007, at 6:01 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But what exactly does it mean?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joseph Salmons
> Sent: Tue 12/18/2007 5:06 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
>
>
> Oh, this one is far from dead ... at least among my relatives in North
> Carolina.
>
> Joe
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:55 PM, Dennis Preston wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "Give me some sugar."
>> =
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> 'Give me some sugar' was very common among white folk in Southern
>> Illinois, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, including use by my
>> grandparents, making it  much older, in the early 40s and 50s. It is
>> it old timey indeed; could be gone.
>>
>> dInIs
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      "Give me some sugar."
>>> =
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>>
>>> When I was at UC Davis in 1969, I had occasion to say to my
>>> girlfriend, a white native of Sacramento, "Gimme some sugar'." After
>>> an awkward silence lasting some few seconds, she finally replied, "I
>>> don't know what you mean." From that time to the present, I've
>>> asked a
>>> random assortment of white Northerners about this expression and
>>> have
>>> yet to find one who was familiar with it. (I haven't asked any white
>>> Southerners, since they're as rare as black people in the rarefied
>>> Northern atmosphere in which I live. In addition, I've, for no good
>>> reason, assumed that the expression is General Southern and is not
>>> peculiar to BE.)
>>>
>>> Google yields about 80,000 raw hits for all variants: "sugar" v.
>>> "suga," "give me" v. "gimme," etc.
>>>
>>> DARE has only(?) "gimme some juice," under GIVE, presumably only in
>>> its literal meaning. Interestingly enough, all of DARE's Black
>>> variants are in use nearly everywhere in BE as I know it.
>>>
>>> So, I guess that this is still almost surely only a Down-Home
>>> expression.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> --
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint
>>> to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -----
>>>                                             -Sam'l Clemens
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> University Distinguished Professor
>> Department of English
>> Morrill Hall 15-C
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:20:24 -0500
From:    Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well

Very current and very common in Georgia!

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:06:34 -0600
>From: Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU>
>Subject: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
>Oh, this one is far from dead ... at least among my relatives in North
Carolina.
>
>Joe
>
>
>On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:55 PM, Dennis Preston wrote:

>>
>> 'Give me some sugar' was very common among white folk in Southern
>> Illinois, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, including use by my
>> grandparents, making it  much older, in the early 40s and 50s. It is
>> it old timey indeed; could be gone.
>>
>> dInIs
>>

>>>
>>> When I was at UC Davis in 1969, I had occasion to say to my
>>> girlfriend, a white native of Sacramento, "Gimme some sugar'." After
>>> an awkward silence lasting some few seconds, she finally replied, "I
>>> don't know what you mean." From that time to the present, I've
>>> asked a
>>> random assortment of white Northerners about this expression and have
>>> yet to find one who was familiar with it. (I haven't asked any white
>>> Southerners, since they're as rare as black people in the rarefied
>>> Northern atmosphere in which I live. In addition, I've, for no good
>>> reason, assumed that the expression is General Southern and is not
>>> peculiar to BE.)
>>>
>>> Google yields about 80,000 raw hits for all variants: "sugar" v.
>>> "suga," "give me" v. "gimme," etc.
>>>
>>> DARE has only(?) "gimme some juice," under GIVE, presumably only in
>>> its literal meaning. Interestingly enough, all of DARE's Black
>>> variants are in use nearly everywhere in BE as I know it.
>>>
>>> So, I guess that this is still almost surely only a Down-Home
>>> expression.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>>
>>> --
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint
>>> to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -----
>>>                                              -Sam'l Clemens
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dennis R. Preston
>> University Distinguished Professor
>> Department of English
>> Morrill Hall 15-C
>> Michigan State University
>> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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



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