Cheesecake (women): solution in Tamony article?

[Jonathan Lighter]

I can't disconfirm it, but the connection sounds very far-fetched to me.

As of now.

JL

"Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"
Subject: Re: Cheesecake (women): solution in Tamony article?
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The origin of "cheesecake" in reference to young women showing their legs is still unclear. The unsubstantiated story about Russian diva Elvira Amazar and the editor who said (when seeing the photograph) "This is better than cheesecake" is best regarded as a folk etymology.

As part of the ongoing discussion, note a relevant item:
Tamony, Peter 1968. Cheesecake; The female gam: its exposure and decoration in historical context. Americanisms: Content and Continuum, no. 22. Privately printed by Tamony.
One particular sentence caught my attention (p. 4). . "The obvious relation between the rich, tan-golden-too-brown-beige women's silk hosiery of the 1920's-1930's, and the comparable colours of the edible cheesecake so salivarily seen by and served to ethnic groups in the melting pot of New York City does not seem to have heretofore been noted. ... "

Tamony isn't at all impressed with the Elvira Amazar story. Maybe his comment just above about the comparable colors of the edible cheescake and the silk hosiery of the 1920's-1930's contains the etymological solution.

Gerald Cohen


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