"laid" and other random BE slang in the HDAS

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson,

No irony or sarcasm intended. Quite the opposite. I certainly would have defined "jump sharp" separately if the number of citations had warranted it and am most pleased to for any clarification of any entry.

As for Mezzrow or, more precisely, his collaborator, Bernard Wolfe, his orthography is perfectly standard.  It's his vocabulary that's remarkable.

I think Gerry Cohen reprinted the entire glossary once in "Comments on Etymology."

I was in college before I realized that "Brer" shd be pronounced "Bruh" (or even "Bro"?).

(My comment to Jesse was simply a good-humored  reaction to his lightning defense of HDAS.)

JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "laid" and other random BE slang in the HDAS
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On Jul 25, 2004, at 11:31 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "laid" and other random BE slang in the HDAS
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>
> Go get 'em, Jesse!
>
> Wilson, thanks for the xtra "jump sharp." If I'd had more, it would
> have been in boldface.

Is the above meant seriously or ironically? Or, perhaps, even
sarcastically? I'm afraid that I've missed your point entirely.

>
> 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.

Does he actually use "ahruhs" in his transcriptions of black speech?
Ain't that a pistol?! It must make his writings as hard to read as the
"Uncle Remus" stories. It wasn't till I was in my 40's that I
understood that whatchanamit was writing exclusively for a white
Southern audience that would have immediately understood that, e.g.
"brer" (or however he transcribed it) is not meant to be pronounced
"brair." And I'm still left with the problem of what is represented by
the string, "sezee." Not that I have any intention of reading the old
uncle's tales, in any case.
>
> JL

-Wilson Gray

>
>
> Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
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> 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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