America's First Rap Song

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Wed May 17 13:17:18 UTC 2006


"Fly" = smart; shrewd; clever; wide awake.

  HDAS takes it back to the early 18th C.  .

  JL

David Bowie <db.list at PMPKN.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: David Bowie
Subject: Re: America's First Rap Song
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jonathan Lighter



> _He's_ fly enough to shut up every boozing ken;

Okay, i know how i would read this nowadays, were it a modern rhyme.
What'd "fly" mean back then, though?



David, who also probably wildly misread "mounting my prad"
--
David Bowie http://pmpkn.net/lx
Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low  PC-to-Phone call rates.

---------------------------------
New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list