learn something new every day

[Jonathan Lighter]

So "bring smoke on" antedates the mid to late ' 60s ?

  In fact, it's far more common in Vietnam memoirs than "bring pee on," which the writers (or their copy editors) never spell as "bring P."

  So naive am I that I assumed "bring pee" to refer to

  a. a stream of machine-gun tracers at night, and

  b. the physiological result of having a stream of tracers being directed at you as an individual.

  Hence the name of this thread.

  JL



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: learn something new every day
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whoa, Jon! That *is* interesting. The Vietnam usage looks like a blend of
the form, "bring P on" in its "fuck over" sense, with the form, "bring smok=
e
on," in its "shoot at" sense, with "bring P on," for whatever reason, being
selected in place of "bring smoke on" as the canonic form. I was aware of
the "misuse" of "bring P on" in Vietnam and had long wondered why the
"correct" "bring smoke on" was not used. Perhaps "bring smoke on" was
regarded as too concrete, "fuck over" not being included in it as a possibl=
e
meaning. If "bring P on" is used, there's a pun.

-Wilson

On 2/15/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: learn something new every day
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
------
>
> How interesting. A number of memoirs of Vietnam veterans memoirs have the
> term "bring pee on," meaning "to subject to gun or rocket fire; to terrif=
y
> in this way."
>
> Is this a continuation of pre-1965 usage ?
>
> JL
>
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: learn something new every day
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
------
>
> "Pea-time"/"pee-time" reminds me of an old, ca.1961, St. Louis BE usage:
> "bring P," wherein "P" =3D3D "piece (of pussy)." This means "get some pus=
sy"
> (somehow, "be succcessful in an attempt to persuade a woman to allow one
> to
> engage in sexual intercourse with her" doesn't quite succeed in capturing
> the flavor of the phrase).
>
> These "bring" phrases are extremely rare. The only other one that I know
> of
> is "bring smoke on someone's ass," which means "fire a gun at or shoot
> someone." This one was in general use and not peculiar to St. Louis. Also=
,
> "bring P on someone" means "fuck over someone."
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 2/15/06, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Laurence Horn
> > Subject: learn something new every day
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=3D
> ------
> >
> > I reproduce this message (sans link) from the daily spam collection:
> >
> > =3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D
> > Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 8:15: 6 -0330
> > From: "Genevieve Swain"
> >
> > What are you to do if you have bad erection? Especially
> > in the forthcoming Saint Valentines Day???
> > Don t worry, it is not the last of pea-time...
> > The most simple way is to visit our site, order the
> > medication and that is all you are to do!
> >
> > Do not kill the clock!
> > =3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
=3D3D=3D3D
> >
> > (You'll note that this was sent the day after Valentine's Day; never
> > to early to plan ahead for next year, it appears.)
> > Being wholly unfamiliar with the phrase, but assuming in the context
> > it was not a typo for "the last of pee-time", I googled it, and sure
> > enough "(like) the last of pea-time" has 157 g-hits, many with
> > glosses along the line of 'elderly, old, senile'. Go know.
> >
> > Larry
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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