high five

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Sat, Oct 09, 2004 at 10:05:19PM -0400, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>
> What is ignored by some books (including the Cassell dictionary, at a
> glance) is that "Slip me five" and "Give me five" are (or were) sometimes
> just 'stylish' ways of saying "Shake my hand"; they do not necessarily call
> for slapping, stroking, etc. I would guess that these expressions meant
> "Shake my hand" in the old-fashioned sedate manner before they meant
> "Slap/stroke my palm" or any other variant.

HDAS has quotes from 1918 (from a later issue of AS) and then
1926 and 1928 from more properly dated sources, all clearly showing
'shake hands' rather than 'slap palm'.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED