Flappers' Dictionary (September 1922): "blouse" (to go); "sweetie"

Cohen, Gerald Leonard gcohen at UMR.EDU
Sun Sep 28 19:02:56 UTC 2003


Two items in the 1922 Flappers' Dictionary caught my attention:
1) "blouse"--Why does "Let's blouse" mean "Let's go"? -- I don't see this term in HDAS or Jonathon Green's _Cassell's Dictionary of Slang_.

2) "Sweetie"--anything a flapper hates. -- Cf. Ellen Goodman's syndicated column today: "California--Arnold goes mano-a-womano' big mistake." e.g. in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/28/2003, sec. B, p. 3/1.
The article concerns Schwarzenegger's comments to Arianna Huffington in the debate a few days ago.. Goodman writes: "We know how you [Schwarzennegger] bragged about creating this scene to Entertainment Weekly last July: 'How many times do you get away with taking a woman and burying her face in a toilet bowl?'" Now this? [His debate-comments to Huffington].
    "Arnold, sweetheart, get yourself rewrite."

Gerald Cohen

-----Original Message----- (from Barry Popik, 9/27/2003)
 14 September 1922, EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER (Edwardsville, Illinois),
pg. 4?, col. 4:
OFFICE CAT
BY JUNIUS
COPYRIGHT 1921 BY EDGAR ALLAN MOSE.
   _The Flappers' Dictionary._
...
Blouse:  To go, as, "Let's blouse."
...
Sweetie:  Anybody a flapper hates.
...



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