"fanelights"

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:25 PM -0500 10/1/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>The term used in Nashville, early 1970's, was "cutbacks".  And we waited
>"in line".  I never heard "on line" until I was well into adulthood, and
>thought it was only a British usage even then.

It's a NYC shibboleth, along with "saluggi".  I don't know if
"frontie(s)-backsies" was limited to NYC; evidently it had limited
distribution there.

LH

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

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