Unfamiliar slang term
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Feb 29 17:24:20 UTC 2008
Hi, sugar!
Here's the word on the word.
Love you,
-Wilson
On 2/29/08, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject: Re: Unfamiliar slang term
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 03:40:22PM +0000, Jonathon Green wrote:
> > Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> > >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >-----------------------
> > >Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >Poster: Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> > >Subject: Re: Unfamiliar slang term
> > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 10:11:09AM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > >
> > >>The quote is the set-up to the punchline of a joke. The word's meaning
> > >>is clear. The question is whether anyone has ever come across the term
> > >>elsewhere. The situation entails a wronged husband giving directions
> > >>to a hit-man:
> > >>
> > >>"I want you to shoot my cheating wife in the head. The guy, I want him
> > >>alive, but
> > >>can you shoot his _todger_ off?"
> > >>
> > >
> > >This is extremely common in British English. OED has an entry with a
> > >first cite of 1986.
> > >
> > >Jesse Sheidlower
> > >OED
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > Indeed. And as Monty Python put it in 1983:in their song 'The Meaning of
> > Life': It's swell to have a Stiffy, / it's divine to have a Dick, / from
> > the tinyest little Tadger, / to the world's greatest Prick.
> >
> > Tadger/todger have always been interchangeable. The term seems to have
> > started in northern dialect then moved south through the UK. However the
> > EDD only offers, at tadger, 'the centre marble in a game of marbles'.
> > One sees the physical centrality of the penis, but maybe the verb tadge,
> > 'to stitch lightly together', a term used of a newly-married couple, and
> > of a piece with other terms that reflect the 'sewing/stitching' motiong
> > of intercourse, may be more to the point.
>
>
> OED does also have an entry for _tadger_ (_todger_ is
> etymologized as being a variant of that), with a first
> quotation of 1949, in Partridge. And a quotation from Monty
> Python's Flying Circus...must have been a favorite of theirs.
>
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
>
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>
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