Unfamiliar slang term

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Feb 29 17:24:20 UTC 2008


Hi, sugar!
      Here's the word on the word.

Love you,
-Wilson


On 2/29/08, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>  Subject:      Re: Unfamiliar slang term
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 03:40:22PM +0000, Jonathon Green wrote:
>  > Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>  > >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>  > >-----------------------
>  > >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  > >Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
>  > >Subject:      Re: Unfamiliar slang term
>  > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  > >
>  > >On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:11:09AM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
>  > >
>  > >>The quote is the set-up to the punchline of a joke. The word's meaning
>  > >>is clear. The question is whether anyone has ever come across the term
>  > >>elsewhere. The situation entails a wronged husband giving directions
>  > >>to a hit-man:
>  > >>
>  > >>"I want you to shoot my cheating wife in the head. The guy, I want him
>  > >>alive, but
>  > >>can you shoot his _todger_ off?"
>  > >>
>  > >
>  > >This is extremely common in British English. OED has an entry with a
>  > >first cite of 1986.
>  > >
>  > >Jesse Sheidlower
>  > >OED
>  > >
>  > >
>  > >
>  > Indeed. And as Monty Python put it in 1983:in their song 'The Meaning of
>  > Life': It's swell to have a Stiffy, / it's divine to have a Dick, / from
>  > the tinyest little Tadger, / to the world's greatest Prick.
>  >
>  > Tadger/todger have always been interchangeable. The term seems to have
>  > started in northern dialect then moved south through the UK. However the
>  > EDD only offers, at tadger, 'the centre marble in a game of marbles'.
>  > One sees the physical centrality of the penis, but maybe the verb tadge,
>  > 'to stitch lightly together', a term used of a newly-married couple, and
>  > of a piece with other terms that reflect the 'sewing/stitching' motiong
>  > of intercourse, may be more to the point.
>
>
> OED does also have an entry for _tadger_ (_todger_ is
>  etymologized as being a variant of that), with a first
>  quotation of 1949, in Partridge. And a quotation from Monty
>  Python's Flying Circus...must have been a favorite of theirs.
>
>
>  Jesse Sheidlower
>  OED
>
>
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