Poop [was: True Blue]

[Wilson Gray]

Good eye, Joel! Naturally, I saw the "short blast" definition, but I
failed to make the connection.

-Wilson

On 11/14/06, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Poop [was: True Blue]
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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