Shining On

[Patty Davies]

The only meaning I was familiar with was the 2nd sense, very close to
'leading someone on'.  This was from the LA area (Santa Monica) in the 70's.

Patty


At 09:35 AM 7/10/05, you wrote:
>Chapman's slang dictionary, 2nd ed., shows both:
>
>"Shine someone on" (sense 1) = "to reject and ignore someone; abandon
>someone" [also "shine" = "to reject; disregard; avoid"].
>
>"Shine someone on" (sense 2) = "to deceive someone; beguile".
>
>I wonder how the development went semantically. Chapman takes sense 1 as
>possibly originally referring to "mooning" someone (turning one's back on
>someone). I suppose sense 2 could be independently derived from the hunting
>practice of shining deer (baffling the animal with a bright light in order
>to kill it at close range) (just my casual speculation). I don't know
>exactly why the "on" in either case; maybe in sense 2 it could be inherited
>from "put on" or "lead on"?
>
>-- Doug Wilson