Speaking of "gay," etc.

[Jonathan Lighter]

"All the higher" NYC in 50s, maybe from a grandparent.

Not since.

JL
Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Speaking of "gay," etc.
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On Sep 22, 2004, at 3:13 PM, Benjamin J Barrett wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin J Barrett
> Subject: Re: Speaking of "gay," etc.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Dookie as in poop? I remember that meaning in the suburbs of Seattle in
> the 70s, or maybe it was Anchorage...
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Baking the World a Better Place (with the famous dog Pasco)
> www.hiroki.us
>

Yes, that's the very word. God verdoeme! as they say in Dutch. I can't
tell you how surprised I am! Well, this just goes to show you that you
never know.

I just heard someone ask, "Is that all the higher you can get it up?"
Haven't heard that turn of phrase in years, either. In this case,
though, I know that this usage is/was pretty much universal.

-Wilson Gray

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf
> Of Wilson Gray
>
> DARE has the word "doofunny," etc. with the same meaning as
> "doohickey,"
> etc. In BE, however, "do-funny," as I've always imagined the "correct"
> spelling to be, means "gay male" and nothing else. "Funny" alone can
> also mean "gay," or, as part of the phrase, "funny that way," its only
> meaning is "gay." I didn't find it in HDAS.
>
> On the other hand, HDAS does have "dookie" and DARE doesn't. Until very
> recently, when I heard it used by adults on the Jerry Springer show, I
> thought that dookie was a children's "bad word" used only in East
> Texas.
> Needless to say, I was surprised to see it in HDAS. Either the word has
> spread far and wide since the '40's or my never having heard the word
> used outside of East Texas until a couple of years ago was a complete
> accident.
>


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