"laid" and other random BE slang in the HDAS

[Jonathan Lighter]

Go get 'em, Jesse!

Wilson, thanks for the xtra "jump sharp."  If I'd had more, it would have been in boldface.

The classical text for "motherferyer" is Mezz Mezzrow's "Really the Blues."   He uses it plenty.  He also includes an extensive glossary: a typically mixed bag of the real, the
plausible, and the bizarre.

JL


Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
Subject: Re: "laid" and other random BE slang in the HDAS
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On Sat, Jul 24, 2004 at 09:11:32PM -0400, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> On the other hand, "jump sharp" itself, which I've always considered to
> be - in olden times, at least - in universal use, appears to be
> missing. I say "appears" because it's dark and I'm working without my
> reading lamp. If I turn it on, one of our cats will come and stretch
> out on top of the HDAS in order to catch some rays.

It's there. There's an entry for _jump_ 'to behave (in a
specified manner) suddenly', and while we pull out several
common phrases, _jump sharp_ is found in the list of cites.

> "Mother for you" [muthuhFUHyuh is only trivially distinct from
> muthuhFUHkuh] and "My Friend" (because of initial "M" & "F") are other
> euphemisms for "motherfucker" and at least as old as the song, "Bad
> Mother For You" by Dirty Red.

The entry for _motherfucker_ does indicate "Forms such as
_motherferyer, -fuyer_ are euphem.". I thought there was
more discussion of these forms, but I seem to be mistaken.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED


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