"Stallion": minor correction of Spears

[Scot LaFaive]

I know that DARE also has "stallion" in this sense, though I'm pretty sure
it also doesn't denote a female of "plus size."

Scot


>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: "Stallion": minor correction of Spears
>Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:02:22 -0500
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      "Stallion": minor correction of Spears
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Spears, in _Slang and Euphemism_, defines "stallion" as used in BE
>slang as "a beautiful and sexually attractive black woman." This is
>correct, as far as it goes, but a stallion has to be *plus-sized.*
>Think Chaka Khan or Queen Latifah. E.g., Halle Berry is a fox, but she
>ain't no stallion. It's not necessary that the woman be black. Any
>"fine" or "fine and healthy" (both of these  terms are missing from
>S&E) B[ig]B[eautiful]W[oman] is a stallion. Cf. the late, great Anna
>Nicole Smith. (MTV Cribs is on in the background and Ice-T, by the
>sheerest coincidence, has just revealed that a headshot of Britney
>Spears hangs over his bed.)
>
>I have no idea why "stallion" is used in this meaning instead of
>"mare," as would be expected. I've pondered this question for dekkids.
>Iss jess one uh them black thangs that even black folk don't
>understand, I reckon.
>
>FWIW, Russian slang uses _kobyla_ "mare" in a similar sense.
>
>-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

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