Origin of "flamer"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Cf. HDAS "fireship."

  As for "flame" as a U.S. term in the sense stipulated, fohgeddabouddit.

  J

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Origin of "flamer"?
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When I was a teener, ca.1950, a person with what was still euphemized
as a "social disease," particularly gonorrhea, was said to be "hot."
But that's as close as I can get.

-Wilson, who's still trying to get ready for "hot" = sexually attractive

On 12/14/06, Rowan McMullin wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Rowan McMullin
> Subject: Re: Origin of "flamer"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have a reference to "flame" as a slang term for any venereal disease,
> particularly gonorrhea. Richard Spears' dictionary of slang and euphemism
> places this use in the 1800s. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
>
> -Rowan
>
> On 12/14/06, Jim Parish wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jim Parish
> > Subject: Re: Origin of "flamer"?
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Just a side note, but some years back I read a book recounting a month
> > or so in the life of Ed Muskie; the word "flamer" came up as describing
> > the sort of senator who will not compromise an inch, preferring to "go
> > down in flames". (I don't recall which senators were identified as such,
> > but George McGovern may have been one of them.)
> >
> > Jim Parish
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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