SUX

[Dennis R. Preston]

>OK, I'm old enough.

>I'm with Ron in this case (oh rarity!) in pointing to non-fellatio
>pejorative "sucks", and not just those associated with "sucker,'
>(i.e., one easily taken in).

One  such usage, which dates to my early sporting life (basketball,
football, baseball - that kind of sporting life) had to do with the
out-of-shape kid who was left behind sucking wind (or air), surely a
non-sexual a reference to gasping and always clearly negative.

I suspect such usage may have given rise to some more etymologically
mysterious expressions of my youth (e.g., "Your ass sucks wind" often
with the elaborate addition of "through a sissy-stick") [NB: Us
he-boys of the Louisville area has a grade-school usage of "sissy"
which had no sexual overtones, though a deeper look at it would
reveal homophobic undercurrents; a "sissy-stick," by the way, was a
straw; something a girl would drink from; a real he-boy would swig
soft drink out of a bottle, of course.]

On the other hand, I do not doubt at all the contamination of other
pejorative "sucks:" with oral sex "sucks," but, like Ron, I think we
should be careful of jumping to this conclusion.

dInIs

PS: I haven't said "Your ass sucks wind through a sissy stick for
more than fifty years. Thanks for the opportunity to remember.
>




>I started this thread to dredge up evidence concerning the early
>career of a now salient Americanism.  Are Wilson, Ron, and I really
>the only ones aged enough to have something to contribute?
>
>That WOULD be scary.
>
>JL
>
>RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: RonButters at AOL.COM
>Subject: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Re:=20=A0=20=A0=20=A0=20Re:=20SUX?=
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>In a message dated 9/26/04 8:55:35 PM, wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM writes:
>
>
>>  Even in the early to mid-90s when "suck"'s explosive force had been greatly
>>  weakened, some conservative parental groups objected to its occurrence on TV
>>  as just too vulgar for their homes. Members of these groups, I feel certain,
>>  were not thinking that it referred to "suckers," "sucker punches," "sucking
>>  hind tit," or anything so bland as that.
>>
>
>Precisely. But this sort of retro-association is not evidence of ORIGIN, any
>more than any other folk etymology would be. Parents in general tend to assume
>the worst about the practices of the young, if only to protect their
>offspring from any possible infelicity.
>
>Similarly, putative etymologies based on it-stands-to-reason logic and hazy
>remembrances of what one's reactions may have been to "as-I-recall"
>writings on
>public toilet walls are interesting as expressions of opinion, but they don't
>really constitute scientific evidence, do they? The burden of proof, it seems
>to me, must lie with those who would dismiss any connection with the
>pejorative uses of SUCK that were already in the language in favor
>of assertions of an
>exclusive connection with fellatio. I certainly admit that such evidence
>might be hard to come by, given the taboo nature of the proposed
>origin and the
>difficulty of finding evidence for early uses of ANY slang term. But the fact
>that such evidence is not readily available is certainly not a valid reason to
>conclude that it certainly must exist.
>
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736