The slang meaning of the verb "rip off"

[Mark A. Mandel]

Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
sez


        >>>


The longer phrase _rip off a piece/hunk/etc._ does indeed
exist, and is attested at least as far back as the 1930s; I
assume it is the origin.

        <<<

I remember a similar term from the classic collection of Appalachian
folklore _Pissing in the Snow_, in a story which may be called something
like "The Decoy". Without giving away the point of the story, after a couple
has cheerfully had sex, they talk a bit, and then "they tore off another
hunk".  I can't be more precise because I'm quoting from memory.

Presumably the original metaphor was tearing off another hunk from a loaf of
bread or something similar.

-- Mark Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]