Spears

[Dennis Preston]

Wilson,

For me, exclamatory "Your ass" is a short form of "That's your ass,"
said in disbelief or to oppose an action proposed or claim made by
another. It's not a clipped form of "Stick it up your ass" (which,
for me at least, "Up yours" is). Do you claim that the BE "Your ass"
you know is different? In my ball playing days, during trash talking,
claims about what one was going to do were often met with "Your ass"
or the full form "That's you ass." "Stick it up your ass" would not
have worked there. (Course "Ima stick that ball up you ass and then
jump shoot the sumbitch right over you, you, ball, and all" would be
good, but now I'm gettin fancy.)

dInIs



>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Spears
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>
>Spears has "Up yours!" as a clip of "Stick it up your ass!" He lacks
>"Your ass!", the BE equivalent. However, he does have "Your brown!,"
>with which I am totally unfamiliar. (I do not wish to imply by this
>that Spears claims that this latter is a black expression. He does
>not.)
>
>Spears distinguishes between "yin-yang" = anus and "ying-yang" =
>penis. I've heard only "ying-yang" = anus.
>
>-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
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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