"frontsies-backsies"

[Joel S. Berson]

  I remember "frontsies-backsies", NYC around 1950.

Joel

At 10/1/2006 04:22 PM, you wrote:
>Certainly "Indian giver" was common, but I don't
>recognize the other phrases noted by Larry.
>
>   JL
>
>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
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>Poster: Laurence Horn
>Subject: Re: "fanelights"
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>
>At 9:15 AM -0700 10/1/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >In NYC in the '50s I sometimes heard "fins !" in
> >precisely the general sense indicated in the
> >1870 quot. The fingers of each hand were
> >crossed as an accompanying visual signal.
> >
> > At the time I thought the crossed fingers
> >somehow represented fish's fins. That didn't
> >make any sense either, but what the heck. But
> >usually kids just said, "Wait a minute !" or
> >"Time out !" (Possibly also "Truce !" but I
> >couldn't swear to this.)
> >
> > JL
>
>This reminds me of another set of kids'
>expressions that didn't exactly involve games,
>but more like rituals. One in NYC (early 1950s)
>was "frontsies-backsies" (when you were waiting
>"on line", as we called it, and allowed someone
>in line ahead of you--since it was illicit to let
>them in line behind you--and then you traded
>places, whence also "No frontsies-backsies" from
>those in back of you in the line, who were
>thereby pushed back a place.
>
>Another was "black black no backs", when you gave
>someone something you didn't want and then
>touched something black to eliminate the
>possibility of their returning it to you. Sort
>of like the opposite of Indian giver.
>
>LH
>
> >
> >Lynne Murphy wrote:
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> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: Lynne Murphy
> >Subject: "fanelights"
> >-----------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------
> >
> >Off-list, I've been directed to _fain v2_ in the OED, which says:
> >
> >= FEN v.2 Used in the expression fains or fain(s I, fain it, fainit(e)s:
> >see quots.
> >1870 N. & Q. 4th Ser. VI. 415/2 ‘Fains’, or ‘Fain it’A term demanding a
> >‘truce’ during the progress of any game, which is always granted by the
> >opposing party. Ibid. 517/1 A boy who had ‘killed’ another at marbles, that
> >is hit his marble, would call out ‘Fain it’, meaning ‘You mustn't shoot at
> >me in return’; or if a boy was going to shoot, and some inequality of
> >surface was in his way, which he would have cleared away, his antagonist
> >would prevent him by calling out ‘Fain clears’. Ibid. 517/2 If a prefect
> >wants anything fetched for him and does not say by whom, those who wish to
> >get off going say ‘Fain I’. 1889 BARRÈRE & LELAND Dict. Slang, Faints
> >[sic], in vogue among schoolboys to express a wish temporarily to withdraw
> >from participation in the particular sport or game being played. 1891
> >FARMER Slang, Fains! Fainits! Fain it! 1913 C. MACKENZIE Sinister St. I. I.
> >vii. 103 He could shout ‘fain I’ to be rid of an obligation and ‘bags I’ to
> >secure an advantage. 1927 W. E. COLLINSON Contemp. English 14 The custom of
> >putting oneself out of the game altogether by crossing the fingers and
> >saying pax! or faynights! [feinaits] or both together. 1948 J. BETJEMAN
> >Coll. Poems (1958) 150 ‘I'd rather not.’ ‘Fains I.’ ‘It's up to you.’ 1960
> >Guardian 1 July 9/7 The Englishman..could remain absolutely pax and
> >fainites. 1969 I. & P. OPIE Children's Games i. 18 This rule is so embedded
> >in children's minds that their immediate response to the proposal of a game
> >is to cry out..‘Me fains first’. Ibid., He must safeguard himself by saying
> >in one gulp, ‘Let's-play-Tig-fains-I-be-on-it’.
> >
> >Thanks very much!
> >
> >Lynne
> >Dr M Lynne Murphy
> >Senior Lecturer and Head of Department
> >Linguistics and English Language
> >Arts B133
> >University of Sussex
> >Brighton BN1 9QN
> >
> >phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
> >http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
> >
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