Further Antedating of "Black Hole"

[sagehen]

on 4/17/08 9:22 AM, Laurence Horn at laurence.horn at YALE.EDU wrote:

> At 6:22 AM -0500 4/17/08, Paul wrote:
>> paul johnson wrote:
>> My understanding has always been that a FF was the act of launching
>> yourself, fully extended , from the foot of the bed with the intention
>> of reaching full penetration as you hit the bed.
>
> Ouch.  But that doesn't quite explain why "a flying fuck" should work
> as a minimizing negative polarity item in the context "to not give
> ____".  Generally, such items represent the lowest or least valuable
> elements on their respective scales (not sleep a wink, not budge an
> inch, not worth a plugged nickel/thin dime, not worth a sou, not
> change a tittle or jot,...); back in the mid-19th century, Pott
> observed that they all have the sense of "not even a..."  It's not
> clear to me why a flying fuck, defined as above, would be less
> valuable or more mundane than a garden variety one. Not that I'm in a
> position to know.
>
> LH
Probably should be fff (flying fuck fantasy) which would reduce its worth to
more like a soap bubble. (Talk about phallocentric
megalomania.............!)
AM

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