Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Jeff.

Surely all these names didn't arise in the '80s???  (When necessary, I've always referred to it as "you know, that strap you can hang clothes on.")

JL

Jeff Prucher <jprucher at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jeff Prucher
Subject: Re: Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I first heard it as "Oh Jesus handle" in 1987 or 1988 in southeastern Michigan,
but I also recall "oh shit handle" and I'm sure we had other variants as well.

Jeff Prucher

--- Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Grab-handle or Strap in Car, etc.
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have found the following US terms for a handle or strap, typically of the
> kind inside a passenger car, that one may grab onto in an emergency. Can any
> of these be dated reliably to the period before ca.1990?
>
> The derivations shd be fairly apparent. Cf. the "Jesus nut" on a helicopter.
>
> holy-crap handle
>
> holy-shit handle
>
> Jesus handle
>
> Jesus strap
>
> oh-crap handle
>
> Oh-Jesus strap
>
> oh-shit handle
>
> shit handle
>
> Any comments wd be welcome.
>
>
> JL
>
>
>
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