Antedating? of "shot his wad" 1896

[Jonathan Lighter]

Since to have "shot one's wad" means "to have exhausted oneself; become played out," etc., sexual applications should have occurred almost immediately.

JL.

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Antedating? of "shot his wad" 1896
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On Sep 19, 2004, at 5:22 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
> Subject: Re: Antedating? of "shot his wad" 1896
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Sam Clements
>> Subject: Antedating? of "shot his wad" 1896
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>
>> P.S. If anyone can cite the first use of the term in a
>> sexual = connotation, I would be grateful.
>>
>
> If online searchable indices/databases of pornography ever appear, a
> whole
> lot of terms will be antedated.
>

Quite so. For example, from reading My Secret Life by "Walter,"
published in parts 1888-1894, I learned that "punk," which is an
insulting term for a male homosexual in BE, was used as a term for a
female prostitute in Victorian England.

-Wilson Gray


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