uptight redux (was Re: ADS-L Digest - 2 Apr 2006 to 3 Apr 2006 (#2006-94))

[Wilson Gray]

Jon, considering that, in our earlier discussion, I got the singer right,
but the song wrong, you have my utmost sympathy. After all, to err (rhymes
with "fur"? / rhymes with "fair"?) is human. ;-)

-Wilson

On 4/4/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: uptight redux (was Re: ADS-L Digest - 2 Apr 2006 to 3
> Apr
>               2006              (#2006-94))
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It was clearly the SW song I was thinking of.  The years have not been
> kind.
>   JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: uptight redux (was Re: ADS-L Digest - 2 Apr 2006 to 3 Apr 2006
> (#2006-94))
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> James Landau wrote:
> >
> > In Basic Training (1969) I frequently heard the Drill Instructors use
> > the phrase "your shit is uptight", used as a compliment to a trainee who
> > did something right.
> >
> > I have never heard this expression elsewhere.
>
> Jonathan LIghter wrote:
> >
> > "Uptight" frequently means/ meant "terrific" in AAVE. Like when James
> Brown
> > sang, "Uptight and outta sight!"
>
> Close. In "Out of Sight" (1964) James Brown sang:
>
> You got a shapely figure, mama,
> That's keepin' me uptight.
> You got a shapely figure, mama,
> A-keep me uptight.
> You're too much!
> You know you're out of sight.
>
> I'd be interested in Wilson's take on this, but to me this sounds like
> the sense of "uptight" meaning 'in a state of nervousness or anxiety,
> worked up'. It's not clearly approbative as in Stevie Wonder's
> "Uptight" from 1966 ("Everything is alright, uptight, out of sight"),
> which perhaps Jonathan was thinking of (we've discussed that song on a
> few occasions).
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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