till

[Wilson Gray]

In WWII Saint Louis, it was:

Q. What time is it?
A. Half pas' the monkey's ass and a quarter to his nuts.

Even then, this reply was essentially noise, but, WTF? It had "ass"
and "nuts" in it. What more could a grade-school boy ask for?

I should point out that "half pas(t)" occurred only in this locution
and not in ordinary speech. To quote Richard Pryor:

Q. "What y'all waitin' for?"
A. "'Leven-thirty. Don't nothin' start happenin' till eleven-thirty."

Later.
Much later.
Later for the happenings.
[Once the coolest of the cool ways to say, "Catch you later."]

-Wilson
-Wilson


-Wilson

On 7/20/07, Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at ohio.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: till
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It was the same for me in the '50s in Minnesota.  Dubuque is on the River,
> right?  It may or may not have shifted to "till" in the past 50 years, with
> the general sweep of Midland speech across Iowa and beyond.  What do you
> hear these days?  (And btw, we used "to" both with and without the noun,
> like you.)
>
>
> At 04:45 PM 7/20/2007, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Bill Lemay <blemay0 at MCHSI.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: till
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Here in Dubuque, Iowa, growing up in the late 1950s, I heard "to" most often.
> >This facilitated the following exchange:
> >
> >"What time is it?"
> >"Ten to."
> >"Ten to what?!"
> >"Ten(d) to your own business!"
> >
> >Bill Le May
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
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

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