today's racy etymological speculation

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Nov 4, 2005, at 4:57 PM, Peter McGraw wrote:

> 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!)
>
> --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.’

from OED2, "ball" n. sense 10 ("A globular or rounded mass of any
substance"):
  b. spec. A spherical piece of soap. (Not now used specifically).

1593 NASHE Christ's T. (1613) 25 As a Barber wasteth his Ball in the
water. 1611 BIBLE Susanna i. 17 Then she said to her maids, bring me
oil & washinge balls. 1624 FLETCHER Rule a Wife III. i. 286 Balls..to
wash out your stains. 1783 AINSWORTH Lat. Dict. (Morell), Mattiacæ
pilæ..soap-balls, washing-balls.



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