[Ads-l] "fist-stamping"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I think it's a yoga position.

JL

On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 2:39 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> In J. Lepore's "These Truths", (p461 Norton paperback)
> "Wild-eyed, fist-stamping Louisiana senator Huey Long rallied his followers
> by radio, too."
>
> I could find no instances of the hyphenated version, a few like "shook his
> fist, stamping his foot on the ground" and one story in Harper's Magazine
> vol 116, "Versus the Same" by Margaret Sutton Briscoe with:
> "No good!" said my father. He spoke with is teeth set, and brought his hard
> fist stamping down on the breakfast table, ...
>
> There's also the good luck/white horse "stamp" (North Carolina and
> elsewhere folklore) where you put spit (licking one or two fingers right
> hand fingers) onto the middle of palm of your left hand and stamp that with
> the base of your right fist when ever you see a white horse to bring you
> good luck. (paraphrase - The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC folklore, vol
> VII)
>
> So, maybe that's a fist-stamp, akin to the 3 count timing gesture for the
> beginning of rock, paper, scissors.  Just never seen it before. I don't
> doubt professor Lepore knows what she meant by that.
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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