jump = copulate with?

[Wilson Gray]

Purportedly, American slave couples solemnized their weddings by jumping
over a broom. I first heard of this practice from my mother (b.1914,
Longview, TX). FWIW, I've always considered this to be bullshit, despite the
fact that I've come across it hundreds of times in readings by, for, or
about black Americana.

-Wilson Gray

On 11/18/05, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject: Re: jump = copulate with?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> James A. Landau writes:
>
> >This suggestion sounds doubtful to me: there seems to be an ancient
> custom
> >of a couple performing their wedding by jumping over an object together.
> >Then, if "to jump" means "to wed", further sexual meanings are not
> >impossible.
> ~~~~~~~~~
> I have a faint forty-year-old memory of a newspaper photo of Jackie
> Kennedy & Aristotle Onassis jumping over something in the course of their
> wedding: Eastern Rite service, perhaps?
> A. Murie
>