Not in DARE?

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 10, 2004, at 2:41 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Not in DARE?
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>> ... I had in mind the specific
>> term, "catbutter," which makes no obvious sense - why "cat" and why
>> "butter"? - and is extremely limited in its use. Nevertheless, it
>> seems
>> to find a kind of echo in German "augenbutter," which makes slightly
>> more sense, given that "augen-" at least means "eye-."
>
> DARE shows "duck butter"

WTF! I'd completely forgotten that this word exists. I haven't heard it
since 1947 and this is the first time that I've seen it written. Among
us grade-school kids in East Texas, this was a common but meaningless
schoolyard jibe. Since "duck butter" meant nothing, its use was not
sufficient to trigger even the mildest scuffle.

In like manner in St. Louis, "cocksucker," which I learned on my very
first day in the first grade, was a trivial schoolyard  jibe carrying
neither meaning nor much insult. Given that "cock" means in Southern
English the exact opposite of what it means in Northern English, I was
a grown man who had more than "made 21" and was in the Army before I
had any idea as to what it was about "cocksucker" that was supposed to
make its use insulting. For example, Archie Moore, a St. Louisan and
the oldest man to win the world's light-heavyweight boxing
championship, was said to owe his strength and boxing longevity to the
fact that he sucked cock, i.e. a major part of his training routine was
that he performed as much cunnilingus as possible.

During the Carter presidency, it was said that Southerners had finally
discovered what made Northeners so strange: "Damyankees cain't tale min
from wimmin!"

>  (q.v.; there is also "goose butter") in the same
> sense ("eye stuff"). Why "cat", "duck", "goose"? I don't know.
>
> "Duck butter" of course means also (1) semen, (2) smegma.

Really? Interesting.

>  There is also
> "gnat butter"; also "gnat bread".
>
> Maybe the animal name is more or less arbitrary, or at least senseless
> in
> its current choice. Maybe at one time there was some rationale for
> calling
> one thing "cat butter" and another thing "duck butter" etc. but they
> got
> confused over the years.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

That's probably the best explanation possible.

-Wilson Gray