[Ads-l] Not in Google:

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jul 6 04:34:05 UTC 2015


Wilson Gray wrote:
>"You ain't as bad as you smell."
>"You ain't bad, you just smell bad."
>
>As it happens, the second version *is* in Google:
> First Blood - Page 150
> https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3D059561485X
> Johnny Russell - 2009 - Preview
> "You ain't bad, you just smell bad," Neon replied.

Google Books has some additional evidence of this quip with variant
spelling in citations that apparently are dated 1928 and 1935.

Year: 2006 (Original edition 1928)
Title: Rainbow Round My Shoulder: The Blue Trail of Black Ulysses
Author: Howard W. Odum (Howard Washington Odum)
Publisher: Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana
Note: Originally published in 1928 by Grosset & Dunlap by arrangement
with The Bobbs-Merrill Company
Quote Page 81
Database: Google Books Preview

https://books.google.com/books?id=tIvR3vDw3B8C&q=%22smell+bad%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Fellow go stompin' aroun' tryin' to git up a fight an' they laugh him
off flo' when somebody holler out, "Hey, dat boy ain't bad, he jes'
smell bad."
[End excerpt]


Year: 1935
Title: Roll Sweet Chariot: A Symphonic Play of the Negro People; in Four Scenes
Author: Paul Green
Publisher: Samuel French, New York
Note visible in snippet: 'Copyright, 1931, by Paul Green under title
"Potter's Field"'
Database: Google Books snippet; data may be inaccurate; Worldcat
publication date is also 1935

https://books.google.com/books?id=7cssAAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22smell+bad%22

[Begin excerpt]
BANTAM. [His eyes shining, but his face never losing its smile.] Dat
man ain't bad, he just smell bad.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 1:44 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:      Not in Google:
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "That must be your asshole talking, because your mouth knows better."
>
> "Get five yards back / And take a running start / And kiss my ass / Until
> you reach my heart."
>
> "You'll get your head shook, your money took, and your name put in the
> undertaker's book."
>
> "That smells like ten gallons of get-back."
>
> "You ain't as bad as you smell."
>
> "You ain't bad, you just smell bad."
>
> As it happens, the second version *is* in Google:
>
> First Blood - Page 150
> https://books.google.com/books?isbn=3D059561485X
> Johnny Russell - 2009 - =E2=80=8EPreview
> =E2=80=9C_You ain't bad, you just smell bad,_=E2=80=9D Neon replied.
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> The expression dates from the Creation. The pun on "Rambo - First Blood
> [Brother]"/"Rambo - First [Young] Blood" implied in the book title dates
> from the movie title, of course.
>
> --=20
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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