"Give me some sugar" ... alive and well (UNCLASSIFIED)
Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Wed Dec 19 14:58:03 UTC 2007
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
And Sheena Easton turned from a sweet young Scottish lass into a Prince-protégé slut when she released "My Sugar Walls".
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dan Lassiter
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 12:58 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Dan Lassiter <lassiter at NYU.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> There's a Nina Simone song called "Sugar in my bowl" that
> suggests that the meaning of 'sugar' might be broader than
> just 'kiss' among certain speakers (though she uses 'a little
> sugar' and not 'some sugar'). Also, there's the Def Leppard
> song "Pour some sugar on me", which doesn't seem to be about
> just kissing.
>
> Here are the lyrics to Nina's song:
>
> I want a little sugar in my bowl
> I want a little sweetness down in my soul I could stand some
> lovin' oh so bad Feel so lonely and I feel so sad
>
> I want a little steam on my clothes
> Maybe I could fix things up so they'll go Whatsa matter Daddy
> Come on, save my soul Drop a little sugar in my bowl I ain't foolin'
> Drop a little sugar in my bowl
>
> Well I want a little sugar in my bowl
> Well I want a little sweetness down in my soul You been
> acting strangely I've been told Move me Daddy I want some
> sugar in my bowl
>
> I want a little steam on my clothes
> Maybe I can fix things up so they'll go
> Whatsa matter Daddy
> Come on save my soul
> Drop a little sugar in my bowl I ain't foolin'
> Drop some sugar- yeah- in my bowl.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:16:29 -0600
> From: Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
> Some sugar = 'a kiss.'
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2007, at 6:01 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> > Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
> >
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
> >
> > But what exactly does it mean?
> >
> > Gerald Cohen
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Joseph Salmons
> > Sent: Tue 12/18/2007 5:06 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
> >
> >
> >
> > Oh, this one is far from dead ... at least among my
> relatives in North
> > Carolina.
> >
> > Joe
> >
> >
> > On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:55 PM, Dennis Preston wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> >> Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar."
> >> =
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---=
> > ------
> >>
> >> 'Give me some sugar' was very common among white folk in Southern
> >> Illinois, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, including use by my
> >> grandparents, making it much older, in the early 40s and
> 50s. It is
> >> it old timey indeed; could be gone.
> >>
> >> dInIs
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject: "Give me some sugar."
> >>> =
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---=
> > ------
> >>>
> >>> When I was at UC Davis in 1969, I had occasion to say to my
> >>> girlfriend, a white native of Sacramento, "Gimme some
> sugar'." After
> >>> an awkward silence lasting some few seconds, she finally
> replied, "I
> >>> don't know what you mean." From that time to the present,
> I've asked
> >>> a random assortment of white Northerners about this
> expression and
> >>> have yet to find one who was familiar with it. (I haven't
> asked any
> >>> white Southerners, since they're as rare as black people in the
> >>> rarefied Northern atmosphere in which I live. In
> addition, I've, for
> >>> no good reason, assumed that the expression is General
> Southern and
> >>> is not peculiar to BE.)
> >>>
> >>> Google yields about 80,000 raw hits for all variants: "sugar" v.
> >>> "suga," "give me" v. "gimme," etc.
> >>>
> >>> DARE has only(?) "gimme some juice," under GIVE,
> presumably only in
> >>> its literal meaning. Interestingly enough, all of DARE's Black
> >>> variants are in use nearly everywhere in BE as I know it.
> >>>
> >>> So, I guess that this is still almost surely only a Down-Home
> >>> expression.
> >>>
> >>> -Wilson
> >>>
> >>> -Wilson
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint
> >>> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >>> -----
> >>> -Sam'l Clemens
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> > <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dennis R. Preston
> >> University Distinguished Professor
> >> Department of English
> >> Morrill Hall 15-C
> >> Michigan State University
> >> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> > <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org =
> > <http://www.americandialect.org/>=20
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:20:24 -0500
> From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
>
> Very current and very common in Georgia!
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:06:34 -0600
> >From: Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU>
> >Subject: "Give me some sugar" ... alive and well
> >
> >Oh, this one is far from dead ... at least among my
> relatives in North
> Carolina.
> >
> >Joe
> >
> >
> >On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:55 PM, Dennis Preston wrote:
>
> >>
> >> 'Give me some sugar' was very common among white folk in Southern
> >> Illinois, Southern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, including use by my
> >> grandparents, making it much older, in the early 40s and
> 50s. It is
> >> it old timey indeed; could be gone.
> >>
> >> dInIs
> >>
>
> >>>
> >>> When I was at UC Davis in 1969, I had occasion to say to my
> >>> girlfriend, a white native of Sacramento, "Gimme some
> sugar'." After
> >>> an awkward silence lasting some few seconds, she finally
> replied, "I
> >>> don't know what you mean." From that time to the present,
> I've asked
> >>> a random assortment of white Northerners about this
> expression and
> >>> have yet to find one who was familiar with it. (I haven't
> asked any
> >>> white Southerners, since they're as rare as black people in the
> >>> rarefied Northern atmosphere in which I live. In
> addition, I've, for
> >>> no good reason, assumed that the expression is General
> Southern and
> >>> is not peculiar to BE.)
> >>>
> >>> Google yields about 80,000 raw hits for all variants: "sugar" v.
> >>> "suga," "give me" v. "gimme," etc.
> >>>
> >>> DARE has only(?) "gimme some juice," under GIVE,
> presumably only in
> >>> its literal meaning. Interestingly enough, all of DARE's Black
> >>> variants are in use nearly everywhere in BE as I know it.
> >>>
> >>> So, I guess that this is still almost surely only a Down-Home
> >>> expression.
> >>>
> >>> -Wilson
> >>>
> >>> -Wilson
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
> complaint
> >>> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >>> -----
> >>> -Sam'l Clemens
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dennis R. Preston
> >> University Distinguished Professor
> >> Department of English
> >> Morrill Hall 15-C
> >> Michigan State University
> >> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
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