"stinkfinger"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 04:05:51PM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >From the OED On Line:
>
> "*To play at *stinkfinger*,..to grope a woman."
>
> Is this really all that "to play at stinkfinger" means to white people?!
> Of course, it could be simply the case that "correcting" BE [stEiNkfEiN@]
> to "stinkfinger" in spelling does not mean that its meaning is necessarily
> the
> same as that of stinkfinger. Or, perhaps, the problem is due to my
> interpreting
> "to grope a woman" to mean merely "to cop a feel."

I think the problem is with Farmer and Henley's 100-year-old
definition, rather than any lack of understanding of what the
term actually means. (OED can be faulted for punting the
definition, and just saying "see quot. 1903", however.)

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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