today's racy etymological speculation

[Peter A. McGraw]

O.k.  I was hoping someone would beat me to a confession of cluelessness,
but apparently I'm the only one.  I appreciate the double entendre, but I
can't fathom the single one.  Nothing in my experience with barber shops
helps me make sense out of any reading but the unintended one.  (I KNEW I
shouldn't have dropped out of barber college!)

Peter

--On Thursday, November 03, 2005 3:42 PM -0800 "Arnold M. Zwicky"
<zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU> wrote:

> from OED2's entry for BALDERDASH:
>
> Malone conjectured a reference to ‘the froth and foam made by barbers
> in dashing their balls backward and forward in hot water.’
>
> [ouch.  AMZ]



***************************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ****************************