More euphemisms: "pervasive language"

[George Thompson]

OTOH, WRT another popular dance of that era, the "nigger walk,"
possibly inspired by what's called the "pimp walk" or the "swag(ger),
nowadays - in my youth, it was the "cut walk"; not even a WAG as to
the origin of that - no music having any mention of the name of the
dance existed, as you'd expect to have been the case, fifty years
ago..

--
-Wilson
-----

There's a description of a stylish way of walking among the pimps in New
Orleans, ca. 1900, in Jelly Roll Morton's oral history, Mister Jelly Roll.
 I have a vague recollection that he uses the word "cutting" or "cut" in
connection with it.  He certainly calls it "shooting the agate"  I have the
1950 edition of the book in my hands, but can't find the passage right now.
 When I have time, later, I will skim more carefully, though you all are
free to save me the trouble or pleasure.

GAT
On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 2:08 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> Back in the '60's a popular dance among black Americans was the
> "sophisticated sissy." As constant readers know, in BE, _punk_ is,
> perhaps, *the* derogatory term for a male homosexual, since it has no
> other meaning. Needless to say, it's not the only term. There is also,
> for instance, _sissy_, which, in addition to having the usual, sE
> semantics, is used as a derogatory term for a male homosexual. The
> movement of the body and the steps used in doing the sophisticated
> sissy evolved from an interpretation by some unknown amateur
> choreographer of the "walk" of someone like the character, "Emory,"
> played by the late-great Cliff Gorman, in the play/movie, The Boys in
> the Band.
>
> The dance originated in response to an instrumental by The Meters -
> later, The Neville Brothers - called "_Cissy_ Strut," followed up by
> another instrumental, "Sophisticated Cissy," presumably inspired, in
> its turn, by the dance inspired by the original recording.
>
> Now, why _Cissy_ and not _Sissy_?
>
> Well, _sissy_ is like, you know, a bad word, obscene, even. What if
> your gay cousin is going through your sides and finds that you own
> records with the word, "sissy" in their titles? Not cool, y'all!
>
> Naturally, Cuz won't be faked out by this "misspelling." But, it shows
> respect, as when the Wayanses used _posse_ on In Living Color in
> places where _pussy_ was clearly meant. The network and FCC censors
> weren't fooled by that. But, they let it pass.
>
> There were songs written to accompany the rhythm, but none contained
> even _cissy_ in their titles, let alone [sIsI] in their lyrics.
>
> OTOH, WRT another popular dance of that era, the "nigger walk,"
> possibly inspired by what's called the "pimp walk" or the "swag(ger),
> nowadays - in my youth, it was the "cut walk"; not even a WAG as to
> the origin of that - no music having any mention of the name of the
> dance existed, as you'd expect to have been the case, fifty years
> 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.
> -Mark Twain
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: More euphemisms: Â "pervasive language"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > ...or my favorite euphemistic narrowing, "substance-free" (dorms,
> residence halls, floors), which doesn't denote living in a vacuum. Â But
> really no different from "suggestive", inter alia.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > On Mar 16, 2012, at 6:58 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:
> >
> >> Although this phrase is new to me, I take it to be the same semantic
> narrowing of "language" to mean "offensive or obscene language" as you get
> in movies that are rated PG for "mild language":
> >> http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2005/03/06/mild-language/
> >>
> >> Neal
> >>
> >> On Mar 16, 2012, at 5:59 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >>> Subject: Â  Â  Â More euphemisms: Â "pervasive language"
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> From the capsule attached to a review of the movie "21 Jump Street"
> >>> by Wesley Morris in today's Boston Globe:
> >>>
> >>> Rated: R (crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug
> >>> material, teen drinking, and some violence)"
> >>>
> >>> About 1,520,000 Ghits, the first few asking (and alleging) what it
> >>> means but many referring to other concepts. Â And apparently standard
> >>> -- part of the code?; other newspapers use the same phrase about the
> >>> same movie (GNews). Â The phrase seems to go back to about 1994 in
> >>> this context (GNews), but is hard to trace for this sense in GBooks.
> >>>
> >>> So Morris did not mean "perverse". Â Perhaps he meant "persuasive" --
> >>> influencing someone into underage sex. Â In a movie about the Catholic
> >>> Church, "pervasive language" would be repeated exchanges of "Bless
> >>> you, Father;" "Bless you, my son".
> >>>
> >>> I also wonder what is R about "drug material". Â Surely more than just
> >>> seeing it.
> >>>
> >>> Joel
> >>>
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>



-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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