earlier appearance of rice-burner

[Jan Ivarsson]

Tony Thorne's Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (1990) gives
"Rice-burner n American
a Japanese motorcycle. A contemptuous term used by US bikers and particularly by police motorcyclists who were forced to exchange their Harley Davidsons for Japanese motorcycles in the 1970s."
Jan Ivarsson, Sweden

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: den 17 september 2000 02:45
Subject: Re: earlier appearance of rice-burner


> On Sat, 16 Sep 2000, Bernard W. Kane wrote:
>
> > My guru Dr R L Chapman in his New Dictionary of Slang (Harper & Row 1986)
> > has
> > rice-burner  n  motorcyclists  A motorcycle of Japanese manufacture
> >
> > probably transf to Japanese autos and in circulation much earlier.
>
> Here's the earliest citation I can find in a few seconds of research:
>
> 1982 _Wash. Post_ 9 Mar. (Nexis)  With all those "I'D RATHER PUSH MY
> HARLEY THAN DRIVE A RICE BURNER!" Main Street is a Harley-dominated scene.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>   and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
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