The stink/The stank

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:58 PM -0500 1/21/05, Wilson Gray wrote:
>On Jan 21, 2005, at 1:40 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>>Subject:      Re: The stink/The stank
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>--------
>>
>>>From: American Dialect Society
>>>[mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
>>>Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 12:09 AM
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>Subject: Re: The stink/The stank
>>>
>>>Good point, Bev! I shouldn't have let Jonathan bogart me into
>>>a defensive posture.
>>>
>>
>>Bogart?  Don't know the verb that way.  Bogart isn't in the OED,
>>and I need to remind myself to look it up in HDAS tonight (just
>>got a copy of Vol 1, ha!).
>>
>>The only way I know the verb "to bogart" is like the song,
>>"Don't bogart that joint, my friend".  (My interest was, ah,
>>purely academic -- that is, I _was_ in college at the time ....)
>>
>
>Back in the '60's in LA, amongst the colored, at least, "bogart" - very
>often also overcorrected to "BO god" by young peppers who didn't
>remember Humphey Bogart - had the same meaning as "gorilla," which
>meant, "force one to unball one's fists." that is, being bad enough to
>cause an opponent, by sheer force of personality, to abandon his
>opposition, without the necessity of actually having to kick said
>opponent's ass. WRT "bogarting" a joint, I interpreted that to mean
>that the alpha toker had the habit of forcing his fellows to ask/beg
>him for a hit, as a means of underlining his status as "the man."
>
Well, since nobody's chimed in yet with HDAS's entry...
The first cites of the verb are indeed associated with "Black E.",
'to force or coerce, bully, intimidate', from 1966.  Us whiteys'
sense for the verb as 'hog, esp. of a marijuana cigarette' dates back
to its memorable occurrence in the "Easy Rider" movie, 1969.   I
couldn't remember (duh!) the "artists" who popularized that
song--Fraternity of Man?  If you say so....


Artist: The Fraternity Of Man Lyrics
Song: Don't Bogart Me Lyrics

Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.
Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.

Roll another one
Just like the other one.
This one's burnt to the end
Come on and be a friend.

Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.
Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me.

Ro-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-oll another one
Just like the other one.
You've been hanging on to it
And I sure would like a hit.