East Texas blacks shake hands with Oxford University

[Jonathan Lighter]

Supposedly "plunk/plonk" originated in World War I.  British and American soldiers both tended to pronounce "vin blanc" as something like "van blunc."

Wilson, yours is the first US example of "plunk" I have seen, though syn. "pluck" has been reported once or twice.

JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: East Texas blacks shake hands with Oxford University
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After we moved to Saint Louis, we still returned to Marshall, TX, on a
regular basis. While there ca.1950, the big colored boys taught us
young peppers new "bad" words not to be used in the presence of the
'rents. One of these was "plunk," a slang term for wine. I never heard
"plunk" used for wine or anything else anywhere else that I've lived.
Years later, I read somewhere or other that "plonk" was a slang term
for wine used at Oxford University. I was amazed by the similarity of
the two terms, Years after that, I met an Englishman who was a graduate
of Oxford and, of course, the first thing that I asked him was whether
it was true that "plonk" was a slang term for wine used at Oxford. He
replied, "No, that's not true." And, of course, I was sorely
disappointed. But then he continued, "We say 'plunk,''' And I was
stunned.

-Wilson Gray


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