Poop [was: True Blue]

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/12/2006 08:21 PM, James Landau wrote:
>The following extracts are from a letter dated "31st Octo. 1768",
>published in the "Supplement to the New York Journal or General
>Advertiser, No. 1351, November 24, 1768".  The letter is an
>incoherent diatribe about Protestant politics which I cannot decypher.
>...
>"And lastly, as for the Trumpet of Disaffection, which he blows at
>the Poop of his Performance..."
>...
>"Poop" apparently means "end [of his Performance]" and is a metaphor
>based on the "poop deck" of a ship, which MWCD11 defines as "a
>partial deck above a ship's main afterdeck" and dates as 1815, so
>this could be an antedating.

I don't think one has to go as late as "poop deck"; see "poop" OED2
n.1 sense 1. a. "The aftermost part of a ship; the stern ..." which
dates from 1489.  As Wilson Gray noted.

If not a pun on three senses, one being this poop -- "end [of his
Performance]", surely it is a pun on two: windy oration and farting.
"Trumpet ... at the poop" = fart. See "poop" OED2 n2:
Sense 1:  "A short blast in a hollow tube, as a wind instrument; a
toot; a gulping sound. Also, the report of a gun."  Dates from 1553.
Sense 2:  "slang (orig. children's). An act of breaking wind or of
defecation; faeces. Also fig.  Quot. c1744 is an interj."  Dates from
the 1744 quotation.

Joel
Joel

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