Heard on The Judges: "hold" = "borrow"

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the day, in Saint Louis, at least, money was the only thing
that you could hold. A person could say, "Let me hol' a dolla," but
not "Let me hol' yo' short" (pronounced as both "shart" and "shark."
It wasn't till I heard The Beach Boys singing "short" that I
discovered that "shart" was the proper, so to speak, term.) In fact,
in the case that I mentioned, it was only the young woman who talked
about "holding" the car. The fifty-ish couple being sued spoke only of
"borrowing" the car. So, I guess that, wherever exactly she was from,
"hold" is in the process of being semantically expanded among younger
people.

And let me be the first to inform yo' ass that "triflin'" has always
been fresh among the colored. ;-)

-Wilson

On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 11:48 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>
> Subject:      Re: Heard on The Judges: "hold" = "borrow"
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I was struck by this use in the 1999 Destiny's Child song "Bills, Bills, =
>  Bills":
>  =20
>  And you have the audacity
>  To even come and step to me
>  Ask to hold some money from me
>  Until you get your check next week
>
>  =20
>  As I may have mentioned before, the song is also notable, to me, for its =
>  repeated use of the word "triflin'," a word frequently used by my =
>  parents.
>  =20
>  =20
>  John Baker
>  =20
>
>  ________________________________
>
>  From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
>  Sent: Tue 5/6/2008 9:40 PM
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>  Subject: Heard on The Judges: "hold" =3D "borrow"
>
>
>
>
>  Twenty-ish, black, female plaintiff from somewhere near the town of
>  Concord, NY, who spoke a passing-strange dialect: r-ful, with
>  Noo-Yawk-City-like vowels, but, otherwise, Deep-Southern, such as
>  using "Mr. [First Name]" and "Miss [First Name]" as a sign of respect,
>  even to and of the couple that she was suing:
>
>
> "So Mr. Albert said that he was gon' call Miss Betty and aks her could
>  I _hold_ her car."
>
>  I didn't find this use in HDAS [admittedly, my glaucoma, presbyopia,
>  and myopia handicap me when it comes to searching fine print and I may
>  have overlooked it], but DARE has it "in var applications of std sense
>  'be in possession of' ...":
>
>  a  "To examine, to look at ..."
>
>  ...
>
>  c  "To borrow ..."
>
>  Clearly, the speaker is using "hold" in sense c, of which DARE has an
>  example from Virginia. However, this sense is "standard" in Saint
>  Louis BE.
>
>  DARE has an example of sense a from North Carolina, calling it "Rare."
>  But, again, this sense is also "standard" in Saint Louis BE.
>
>  (And, as usual, I'm talking about Saint Louis BE as I know it from a
>  half-century or so ago.)
>
>  -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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--
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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org