[Ads-l] what's the latest [,] dope/poop/skinny?

Fri Aug 30 17:42:57 UTC 2019

Below is a link to a page in "The United States Army and Navy Journal"
that lists a collection of 1878 slang. This is later than JL's first
citation, but it is interesting because is provides a definition for
"skinny" and many other terms.

Date: Jan 19, 1878
Periodical: The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette
Quote Page 375
Database: HathiTrust
Publication Office, New York

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924069759979
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924069759979?urlappend=%3Bseq=385

[Begin excerpt]
TECHNICAL EXPRESSIONS
IN USE AT THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY
Compiled for “Fag Ends," and Considered Complete.
. . .
Skeedool-Called by the outside world schedule.
Skinny—Any study in the Department of Physics and Chemistry.
Skylarking—Scuffling; playing.
Smoke—A class book.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to a HathiTrust catalog page listing earlier issues of
the journal. I was too lazy to search them for "skinny".
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008898673

Garson

On Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 11:58 AM Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 1877 Homer Lee _Fag-Ends from the Naval Academy_  [N.Y.: Homer Lee, 1877]
> 32:  Just bone up on your "Skinny" and let the youngsters be.
>
> 1894 _Lucky Bag_ [USNA] I 68: Skinny. Physics and chemistry.
>
> Etc.
>
> 1991 Merrill L., Bartlett _Lejeune: A Marine's Life_ [Columbia: U. of S.C.
> Press] 28 : Chemistry and physics [were] called "skinny" after the
> legendary and popular professor. Paul J. Dashiell.
>
> A search at HathiTrust shows that Dashiell was still an undergraduate at
> St. John's College, Annapolis, in 1880, so he couldn't have inspired the
> word "skinny" at the Academy in the 1870s.
>
> As "facts or news," it's very rare in print until the 1960s or '70s, often
> as "the straight skinny" or, rarely, "skinnay,"
>
> Earliest: 1938.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 8:47 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> > These three can all sometimes mean, more or less, information.
> > Though "red mike" apparently became specialized slang in the Naval
> > Academy, the following might could be a case of USNA slang influencing a
> > later (broadening?) development.
> >
> > The 1940 Lucky Bag yearbook uses "skinny" five times.
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/luckybag1940unse<
> > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_luckybag1940unse&d=DwMFAg&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=qwwcnEh0SDhYkAO4qMBwW4xEtiaPWhXfdFqgH4eOSPY&s=hY4Vm5TQcZdx81ot3kJxhw4s2Byuj49C8crkmJb1TDU&e=
> > >
> >
> > The mid-right photo caption is about solving a skinny problem, at a desk,
> > in a classroom, with a slide rule in his pocket..
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/luckybag1940unse<
> > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_luckybag1940unse&d=DwMFAg&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=qwwcnEh0SDhYkAO4qMBwW4xEtiaPWhXfdFqgH4eOSPY&s=hY4Vm5TQcZdx81ot3kJxhw4s2Byuj49C8crkmJb1TDU&e=
> > >
> >
> > The Wm. Game text has skinny as an academic department.
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/luckybag1940unse<
> > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_luckybag1940unse&d=DwMFAg&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=qwwcnEh0SDhYkAO4qMBwW4xEtiaPWhXfdFqgH4eOSPY&s=hY4Vm5TQcZdx81ot3kJxhw4s2Byuj49C8crkmJb1TDU&e=
> > >
> >
> > "skinny kept him from athletics," apparently meaning low grades prevented
> > him from participating in (varsity?) athletics.
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/luckybag1940unse<
> > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_luckybag1940unse&d=DwMFAg&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=qwwcnEh0SDhYkAO4qMBwW4xEtiaPWhXfdFqgH4eOSPY&s=hY4Vm5TQcZdx81ot3kJxhw4s2Byuj49C8crkmJb1TDU&e=
> > >
> >
> > His math and skinny were a breeze because of earlier college courses, in
> > contrast to other academic (humanities, bull and dago) departments.
> >
> > https://archive.org/details/luckybag1940unse<
> > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_luckybag1940unse&d=DwMFAg&c=imBPVzF25OnBgGmVOlcsiEgHoG1i6YHLR0Sj_gZ4adc&r=uUVa-8oDL2EzfbuMuowoUadHHcJ7pjul6iFkS5Pd--8&m=qwwcnEh0SDhYkAO4qMBwW4xEtiaPWhXfdFqgH4eOSPY&s=hY4Vm5TQcZdx81ot3kJxhw4s2Byuj49C8crkmJb1TDU&e=
> > >
> >
> > The hop (dance) was the end of math and skinny--so a change of pace.
> >
> >
> > "Skinny" here may mean hard sciences (Physics et sim).
> >
> >
> > Stephen Goranson
> >
> > http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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