Heard on the Judges

[Margaret Lee]

No, Wilson, I was not trying to tease you; I see the two phrases as having similar meanings, though I was unfamiliar with "gettin' up" until you mentioned it.  I recall a picture in the local newspaper the morning after Al Gore lost the last election to George Bush. It showed Gore dancing at a post-election party, and the caption read something like,"Gore 'gets down' at a party in ... "(whatever the city was).

  -Margaret

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  Hm. I can't tell whether you're teasing me or not, Margaret. IAC, IMO,
FWIW, that "get down" is ultimately related to "I'm, etc., down wit'
it 'n' jus' cain't quit it!", which I first heard ca.1957.

-Wilson

On 5/31/07, Margaret Lee wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Margaret Lee
> Subject: Re: Heard on the Judges
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson Gray wrote: Thirty-ish black woman from Chicago:
>
> "He put on party clothes, _get-up gear_."
>
> Back in the day, a person having a good time could be said to be
> "steady [st^dI] gettin' up / gittin' up."
>
> -Wilson
>
> Did "gittin' up" evolve into the more contemporary AAE phrase, "get down," to have a good time?
> -----
>
> Margaret
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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.
-----
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