"Grasshopper" as form of address

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

FWIW, Aesop has a fable about the hard-working ant and the not-so serious grasshopper.  Maybe the grasshopper is a symbol of thoughtlessness and inexperience with the harsh realities of life.
 
Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joel S. Berson
Sent: Tue 11/28/2006 7:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "Grasshopper" as form of address



Coincidentally? "Jumpstart" today has the father (whose name I
forget) saying to his son Jojo about chores "Hahahaha! You have so
much to learn, my young grasshopper."

Joel

At 11/28/2006 01:25 PM, you wrote:
>A fortyish character on the CBS soap opera _The Young and the
>Restless_ has just said, "Sorry, grasshopper, but good is not what I
>feel right now."
>
>   Punctilious persons will note the "what" in place of "how," a
> modern-day "play on syntax" that I won't go into.
>
>   Might as well note for the benefit of future generations that
> Kwai Chang Caine (young David Carradine) was frequently addressed
> as "Grasshopper" by his Masters Kan and Po in the ABC TV series
> _Kung Fu_ (1972-75). He was training to be a Shaolin priest in the
> Old West with mystical bad-vibe-fighting powers.
>
>   More than you need to know about _Kung Fu_ is here:
> http://www.kungfu-guide.com/ ,
>   including the fact that the entire series is available on
> DVD.  Old David Carradine now burlesques his most famous role in a
> pair of commericals for _Yellow Book_, a brand of telephone
> directory.  In one of these he operates a levitating computer,
> possibly in Tibet.
>
>   Now to less meaningful scholarship: is there any Chinese-language
> basis for this use of "Grasshopper" ("young apprentice;
> religiophilosophical aspirant") ?
>
>   JL
>
>
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