FW: Re: Folk wisdom: "Treat 'em Rough !" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Famously appearing in America in the 18th C. diary of William Byrd of Virginia, to "roger" has long been Britspeak, not Yanktalk.

  JL

"Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Baker, John"
Subject: FW: Re: Folk wisdom: "Treat 'em Rough !" (UNCLASSIFIED)
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I think it has some currency even today. Google Groups lists
303 uses of "rogering" and 479 of "rogered" since 1/1/2006.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Michael Quinion
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2007 2:43 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Folk wisdom: "Treat 'em Rough !" (UNCLASSIFIED)

> >Unless the word "roger" above means "to copulate with"
>
> that would be my reading [I think 'screw' might be a more accurate
> gloss], although I admit 1970 does seem a bit late for that usage

George MacDonald Fraser's "Royal Flash" is about the supposed 19th
century adventures of the cowardly bully Flashman from Tom Brown's
Schooldays. For him at that period, "roger" would be the right word.

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