Slang for crystal meth

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thus were created the great narrative ballads.

In three hundred years, anthropologists, sociologists, and, I predict, literary theorists will be poring over such grafitti in search of the essence of the old American life.  In the anonymous folk poetry of those days will they seek the attitudes and remedies that defined their forefathers (and foremothers, in this case).

And, I predict, they will nod sagely at what they find..

JL

Wells Darla L <dlw3208 at LOUISIANA.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wells Darla L
Subject: Re: Slang for crystal meth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connected (but very loosely) to your meth slang:
Graffiti seen in a stall in the women's restroom in a truck stop in Indio,
California in the 80's--"Here I sit with a broken heart, /All cranked up but
my truck won't start" and below in a different hand, "Well, if your dope was
worth a fuck,/ You'd go out and push that truck."





On Thu, 4 Aug 2005 02:03:12 -0400, Wilson Gray wrote
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Slang for crystal meth
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Aug 3, 2005, at 11:05 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> > Subject: Re: Slang for crystal meth
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> > On Wed, 3 Aug 2005 22:07:47 -0400, Wilson Gray
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Newsweek August 8, 2005
> >> p.47
> >>
> >> "... Crank, so-nicknamed because bikers would hide meth in their
> >> motorcycles' crankcases"
> >
> > Looks like this is a popular explanation:
>
> If you mean that it strikes you as bullshit, I'm afraid that I have
> to disagree with anyone who disagrees with you. The writers of the article
> probably pulled that "etymology" out of their asses.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
> >
> > http://www.google.com/search?q=meth+crank-cases
> >
> > This has all the hallmarks of an urban-legend/etymythology, including a
> > lack of verifiability and numerous variations on the theme. (Is the
> > crankcase a hiding place or a reaction vessel? Is it a motorcycle
> > crankcase or a truck crankcase?)
> >
> > HDAS has "crank" back to 1969, but I don't see the "crankcase"
> > derivation
> > until 1995 (S.F. Chronicle, "The Kiss of Meth", 8/27/95) -- though
> > there
> > was a 1989 DEA crackdown on San Diego meth labs known as "Operation
> > Crankcase" (could this have simply been a pun on the DEA's part?).
> >
> > I'd go with the much more mundane explanation that the drug "cranks up"
> > the user.
> >
> >
> > --Ben Zimmer
> >


--

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