"Stinky pinky"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Any chance that "stank-ho" is the source, via white-boy misapprehension, of "skank"?

Curiouser and curiouser,

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Stinky pinky"
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On Sep 29, 2004, at 12:23 PM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Dennis R. Preston"

> Subject: Re: "Stinky pinky"
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> --------
>
>> I lack the smokin reference, but Jesse's "er" referece has been
>> known to me since the early 50s, alongside "stink finger."
>
> dInIs

I, too, lack the smoking reference, and know the er version as "stink
finger," which I, too, have known since the early '50's. But the other
name for it that I know is "finger-fucking." Anyone who's seen the
indie movie, "Welcome To The Dollhouse," may recall that this latter
term figures surprisingly - to me, anyway - prominently in the plot. In
BE, the former term is pronounced as "stank fang-uh" and the latter as
"fang-uh fuckin," in keeping with the tradition of "southernizing"
slang terms. Some may also recall another term, "stink-whore," that
enjoyed a certain vogue a few years back, under the southernized guise
of "stank-ho."

-Wilson Gray

>
>> On Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 12:00:09PM -0400, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>> A woman on today's Springer show used this phrase, which I've never
>>> heard before. Unfortunately, I missed the context in which the term
>>> was
>>> used. Does anybody know what it means?
>>
>> It really depends on the context, but most likely, it refers either
>> to a kind of marijuana, or the finger as used for, er, insertional
>> sexual purposes.
>>
>> Jesse Sheidlower
>> OED
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African
> Languages
> A-740 Wells Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> Phone: (517) 432-3099
> Fax: (517) 432-2736
> preston at msu.edu
>


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