"Scuzzcrack" & "Pimpmobile"

[Jonathan Lighter]

The possibility that Wilson may be the inglorious Milton who coined "pimpmobile" reminds me that back on Oct. 22 I reported two occurrences of the word "scuzzcrack" on CBS's "Joan of Arcadia" that evening, a word which had not appeared on the Net or anywhere else that I was aware of.

Despite its simultaneous reception in millions of American homes, there is still no evidence of wider usage more than 90 days later.

So if Wilson set "pimpmobile" afloat in 1963 without the aid of mass media, we reasonably might not expect it to surface till sometime in the mid 22nd century.

A quick Google check uncovers about one quarter million examples of "pimpmobile" on the Web alone. I am sorry to report, therefore, that any claim in favor of Wilson's unique ownership of this word for copyright, trademark, or servicemark purposes is likely to be staunchly contested.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
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On Feb 3, 2005, at 9:38 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Thanks, Wilson. The military sense must be fairly obscure, since I
> just discovered it and it seems to go back to the '50s among Morse
> operators. Pretty expressive, though.
>
> As for "pimpmobile," it seems to have taken a full decade for your
> creation to have reached the print media.
>
> JL

You know what gives me the jaws (there's a bit in HDAS about this use
of "jaws"; can't recall at the moment whether it has this particular
version) about "pimpmobile"? There's simply no way to find out whether
I'm really *the* source. It's such an obvious coinage that any number
of other people could have come up with it any number of times. It's
even possible that the first person to use the word in print coined it
independently. Sigh! No 15 minutes of fame for me.

-Wilson


> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> When I was a teenager in the 'Fifties in St. Louis,
> "dittybop(p)er"/diddybop(per)" was a fairly mild insult that meant
> something like "wannabe hipster." There was no verb form.
>
> Unfortunately, when I was in The War, I didn't have occasion to come
> into contact with any Morse-code operators. More useless information:
> when teletypy is heard on a voice channel, it sounds like Morse code to
> the untutored ear. Or at least it did on the equipment available in the
> late '50's.
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
>
> On Feb 1, 2005, at 8:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> Have discovered that besides their tedious old meanings, so familiar
>> that I needn't bore you with them, these words have been used in the
>> military with the senses "high-speed Morse operator" and "high-speed
>> Morse receiver/transmitter." To "dittybop" also means "to transmit
>> Morse code at high speed."
>>
>> Can any of my distinguished colleagues and consultants add anything to
>> the above from personal experience ?
>>
>> JL
>>
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