preadolescent "tortures"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 9/30/06, Geoffrey Nunberg <nunberg at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> I've been trying to dredge up the names of some of the "tortures" we
> inflicted on one another when I was eight or nine. I recall the
> Indian wrist burn (sometimes called the Chinese wrist burn, if memory
> serves, where you twisted your hands around someone's wrists in
> opposite directions), and an Indian scalp something-or-other.

HDAS has "Indian burn" (applied to the forearm) and "Dutch rub" or
"Indian rub" (applied to the head).

Many more listed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_prank
http://www.pranksonline.com/encyclopedia


--Ben Zimmer

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