constant companion

[neil]

on 9/4/05 3:44 am, Wilson Gray at wilson.gray at RCN.COM wrote:


>
> Does anyone remember when "constant companion" was the polite locution
> for the man or the woman with whom a person of note enjoyed a close
> personal, i.e. sexual, relationship?
>
> -Wilson
>
>>
>> Harrold Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Harrold Wilson Gray
>> Subject: Re: Lighter lid
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> --------
>>
>> On Apr 6, 2005, at 11:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>>> Subject: Re: Lighter lid
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -
>>> --------
>>>
>>> No, just an arcane reference to the late Jimmy Hatlo, creator of the
>>> comics "L'il Iodine" and "They'll Do it Every Time!," who used to
>>> acknowledge ideas with "A tip o' the Hatlo hat to...."
>>>
>>> JL
>>
>> Did you ever see the movie based on the cartoon in which it was
>> revealed that "Iodine" was actually named "Diane"? Hatlo's work
>> introduced me to "inkum" sc."tax" as a possible pronunciation of
>> "income." and I'll never forget Uncle Lushwell and Mr. Bigdome, though
>> I have forgotten the name of her mother. Her dad was Henry Tremblechin,
>> "Trimble" in the movie.
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>>>
>>> sagehen wrote:
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: sagehen
>>> Subject: Lighter lid
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -
>>> --------
>>>
>>> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>>>

And, of course 'close companion'; 'longtime companion'

"I could see Uncle Fred sitting on the porch in a straw hat. Beside him his
pal Gurney. What should one call Gurney? Longtime companion? Mate? A bit
long in the tooth for 'boyfriend'."
--David Leddick, 'Never Eat In', Serpent's Tail, London, 1999, 68

--Neil Crawford