Take the rag off the bush---(origin of "rap" (talk)

[Wilson Gray]

But isn't even "rap someone's knuckles" literary? Have you ever heard
anyone say that? I haven't, though I've read it and its variants, e.g.
"rap someone on the knuckles," any number of times. Otherwise, I
freely admit that your analysis is easily as worthy of acceptance as
mine own.

-Wilson Gray

On 10/23/06, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
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> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Take the rag off the bush---(origin of "rap" (talk)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >Could be, I guess. There's nothing that says that there can be only
> >one origin of a slang term. FWIW, my experience is that "rap" in the
> >sense of "hit, strike" is only a literary term among black speakers.
> >I've never used it with that meaning, myself, and I've never heard it
> >so used by any other black person. Indeed, I've heard it spoken only
> >once by anyone at all, in real life. When I was in the Army, I once
> >heard a white GI say, "Stop it, or I'll rap you in the mouth!"
>
> I don't think "rap someone" = "hit someone" is very common. But there's
> "rap someone's knuckles".
>
> My own guess (which is worth what it costs y'all) is that the intransitive
> "rap" = "fast-talk" or so comes from the old transitive "rap" = "speak
> forcibly" or so as in "He rapped out a series of orders". A young man might
> have been highly respected on the street in 1965, maybe, if he could "rap
> to the girls" ... rapping (I suppose) meaning articulately and persuasively
> speaking, not stammering or mumbling like some of us do or did ....
>
> I think then this may have been modified a little ca. 1968 to give "rap" =
> "have a frank discussion"/"speak freely" as in "rap session".
>
> Alternative hypotheses would derive "rap" from "repartee", "rapport", or
> even "rapprochement". (^_^)
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
>
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