RE "Shoot beaver"?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Nov 10 14:48:54 UTC 2010


At 8:34 AM -0500 11/10/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Former Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton achieved a _success de scandale_ in 1969-70
>when he reported in his memoir, _Ball Four_, that certain Yankee greats
>would prowl under the stands trying to "shoot beaver."
>
>HDAS has 1974 for female "shooters," 1969 for the male kind.
>
>JL

I associate it with the scene in "Basic Instinct", a movie about 20
years old (and hence a classic of the silver screen) in which murder
suspect Sharon Stone, in a short white dress, uncrosses her legs
across from her interrogator Michael Douglas.  Can't recall if she
was described as shooting beaver at the time, or only afterward.

LH

>
>  On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  -----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>>  Subject:      RE  "Shoot beaver"?
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  It is my impression that the term "shooting beaver" could also (by a sort
>>  of projection?) refer to the lascivious glimpsing of accidentally exposed
>>  female crotches ("beavers")--as when a woman is seen sitting carelessly in a
>>  dress or skirt.  A common regional variant (in eastern Texas in the 1960s)
>>  was "shooting squirrel."
>>
>>  --Charlie
>>
>>  ________________________________________
>>  From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Eric
>>  Nielsen [ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM]
>>  Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 1:20
>>
>>AM-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Exposing their genitals. Anterior version of mooning. In my experience.
>>
>>  Eric
>>
>>  On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 11:49 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>  > -----------------------
>>  > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>  > Subject:      "Shoot beaver"?
>>  >
>>  >
>>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
>>  ------
>>  >
>>  > Does anyone know the slang-meaning of this?
>>
>>  .....the girls in her class "shooting beaver" at the boys.
>>
>>  --
>>  -Wilson
>>  =96=96=96
>>  All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint to
>>  come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>  =96Mark Twain
>>
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>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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