[Ads-l] watermelon - green outside, red inside - figurative slang

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Dave Hause wrote:
> Watermelon:  green on the outside,a thin white rind,
> and red through the center.

The term "watermelon" has been applied to environmental activists.
Here is an instance in 1988.

Date: May 23, 1988
Newspaper: The Guardian
Newspaper Location: London, Greater London, England
Article: Major shifts in the Red-Green spectrum
Author: Robin Cook
Quote Page 38, Column 1
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
Green politics appear to invite analogies with the vegetable world.
Earlier this month at the Green and Red Conference a Belgian visitor
related that back home Greens were likened to watermelons -- green on
the outside and red on the inside. Chancellor Kohl used to do the same
trick with tomatoes -- warning that those who start out green will end
up turning red.
It is interesting that ecology and socialism should now be seen, by
our opponents at least, in organic relationship.
[End excerpt]

The red-green watermelon figurative framework has a long history
before 1988, and Barry Popik has a pertinent entry.

Watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside)
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/watermelon_green_on_the_outside_red_on_the_inside

The first linkage of the term to communism in Barry's post seems to
occur in GB snippets from the 1950s. The first linkage to
environmentalism in Barry's post seems to occur in a 1990 citation. So
the 1988 citation given above pushes the date back a bit.

Garson




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wilson Gray
> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2019 7:37 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: banana
>
> > Besides "Oreo," cf.Native American  "apple": "red on the outside...."
>
> Cf. item Chicano _coconut_ "brown on the outside, ..."
>
> On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 6:51 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Besides "Oreo," cf.Native American  "apple": "red on the outside...."
> >
> > JL
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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