"88," White Power for "Heil Hitler"

[Dennis R. Preston]

Yes, of course. Beverly is right (at least among the people I quickly
interviewed). All (younger) people made this connection. If we
followed this path some of the most insulting words in the language
would be OK because they didn't "originally" carry such meaning. It's
important to suggest, however, at least from the work we have done in
folk linguistics, that "original" and "true," "standard," "accurate"
are often synonyms (and, we think is in part responsible for the folk
fascination with etymology).

dInIs


>First citations are fine, but in the context of the song (which I've
>deleted, alas), the connection with sex is clearly implied, combined with
>the reference to "rock."  The link between "rock 'n' roll" and sex goes way
>back (cites, Barry or Fred?), and "banging" and "gang-banging" are well
>known.  So contemporary linkages of "more/bigger bang for the buck" might
>well be with sexual activity rather than with military stuff, don't you think?
>
>At 09:41 PM 8/28/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>>On Wed, 28 Aug 2002, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>
>>>  Can you give me one such early cite so I can send it to the people
>>>  involved?
>>
>>The earliest I can readily find is:
>>
>>1953 _N.Y. Times_ 13 Dec. 20  This trend toward what the planners call "a
>>bigger bang for a buck" -- the attempt to achieve more fire power at less
>>cost -- has economic, military and technical roots.
>>
>>The Historical Dictionary of American Slang, which probably would have
>>picked up a sexual signification of this expression, has a 1968
>>military-related usage as its first use.
>>
>>Fred Shapiro
>>
>>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
>>Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>>   and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
>>Yale Law School                             forthcoming
>>e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------