[Ads-l] _-ass_

[Peter Reitan]

I was recently surprised to see "silly-ass" in a Jerome Kern song lyric published in 1908, in the song, "Meet Her With a Taximeter" from the Charles Frohmann musical revue, Fluffy Ruffles.

"Take her in a Taxy that's the thing to do . . . . Till the chauffeur chap has some silly-ass mishap and a crowd gathers round!"
Sheet music published by T. B. Harms, 1908, viewable at:

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/apam/librarian?ITEMID=SY105865

Here's my blog post that mentions it:
http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2016/05/taximeter-taximeter-uber-alles-history.html


> Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2016 21:54:54 -0400
> From: wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: _-ass_
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _-ass_
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> OED has "ice cream" in 1672, "iced cream" in 1688: surely close enough
> to make it uncertain  which was the original.
> 
> I suspect it was "iced," but that's merely an opinion.
> 
> OED has an "iced cream" from as recently 1996, but my guess is that is
> either a hypercorrection or a typographical error.
> 
> JL
> 
> JL
> 
> On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 9:42 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Apparently, it has become a thing that _-assed_ will be represented only as
> > _-ass_  - even in scholarly and academic literature - based solely on the
> > way that it is heard, whereas _boody_ will be represented as - and
> > interpreted as - _booty_, despite the way that it's heard.
> >
> > Youneverknow
> > --
> > -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
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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