" tree-top tall" (was: Re: "sugar daddy")

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 6/22/06, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> "Tree-top tall" means "taller than the average person," probably used
> merely as filler, here. Traditionally, a woman has to be fat in order
> to be "phat(t)." Height is not particularly relevant as a measure of
> sex appeal.

What about Long Tall Sally, who's built for speed? Or predating that,
the long and tall girl in Robert Johnson's "They're Red Hot" who
sleeps in the kitchen with her feets in the hall?


--Ben Zimmer

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