1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it mean?

[Jonathan Lighter]

BTW, _Century_, like W3, lacks "butthole" in any sense.

(It does have "butt-howel,"  a "kind of howel or adz used by coopers."

JL

On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it
> mean?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson:
>
>  Hehhehhehhehheh. You said, "But."
>
> > "not fresh, down there,"
>
> One nation divided by a common language.  If you mean, "Has anybody ever
> declared 'butt' to be disgusting?" The _Century Dictionary_ (1889) says,
> "The buttocks; the posteriors. [Vulgar.]."
>
> It doesn't appear much in print till the '40s, and then only (I'd say) in
> naturalist fiction.  I don't think it  become a perfectly innocuous
> euphemism in the mainstream media till maybe the '90s, but that's just my
> impression.
>
> I know I wasn't supposed to say it in the 1950s, though the emotion
> conveyed with the disapproval (like that for "crap") seemed to be
> considerably less than that for "ass" and "shit," which I have to tell you
> I lived without ever hearing till I was eleven or twelve years old. Word!
>
> Ben:
>
> I'd hoped a search for "April 1, 1947" + "Archie" would reveal a hundred
> papers, which could then be examined for their April 2 contents.  No such
> luck.
>
> Diabolically bad luck, I'd say.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 11:37 AM, 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:      Re: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it
> > mean?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 7:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> > > _butt_ 'buttocks'
> >
> > But, it takes a *matched pair* of buttocks to make a single "butt."
> right?
> >
> > BTW, has _buttock_ or _buttocks_ ever been regarded as, well, "not
> > fresh, down there," by those who decide these matters?
> >
> > --
> > -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
> >
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