"hot corn"

[Jonathan Lighter]

This is constantly happening to people too feckless to have purchased enough copies of HDAS I and II. Recommended: a set of both volumes for each room of the house, another for the office, and one more for the car.

  "hot stuff...1. Mil. bullets or shells; gunfire.
  1759 in [Edith] Fowke _Canada's Story [in Song]_ 46: And ye that love fighting shall soon have enough:/ Wolfe commands us, my boys, we shall give them Hot Stuff. 1957 [Curt] Anders _Price of Courage_ 220: Can you squirt some hot stuff on that...[target]?

  Admittedly this is pretty thin evidence; however, the 1759 song plays upon the phrase repeatedly. [You can read a 1908 printing of the whole thing at http://books.google.com/books?id=MrgOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22wolfe+commands+us+my+boys%22+%22hot+stuff%22&source=web&ots=e3hMNmjNFD&sig=TBoKnfibNofq0w-y63l-hmDtE5U ] Also, check of  Anders's Korean War novel (I have one in this very room, of course) confirms that the speaker is talking about mortar fire, not, as might be thought, liquid flame.

  Here's another:

  1895 Frederic Remington _Pony Tracks_  (N.Y.: Harper & Bros.) 220: And shortly we were among them, scattering them like chaff and firing revolver shots into them...."That is the outfit which has been looting down Michigan Avenue. I wish the light would come, and we'll give 'em hot stuff."

  So, whether through survival or coincidence, "hot stuff" can be shown empirically to have been used, on occasion, in precisely the same way as "hot corn" seems to be in Joel's ex.

  Probably the HDAS def. could be broadened with the addition of "what-for" or "hell," but no non-gunfire cites have come to hand.  Ben? Jesse?

  JL

"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
Subject: Re: "hot corn"
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Not having HDAS on my desk, I ask:

"Hot stuff" in what sense? As in the OED's " something of surpassing
excellence or merit; sometimes with implication of moral censure"? I
was imagining the literal "hot lead", out of the pistols.

Joel

At 1/4/2008 12:13 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Cf. "hot stuff" in HDAS.
>
> JL
>
>George Thompson wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: George Thompson
>Subject: Re: "hot corn"
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Joel Berson suggests;
>Was "corn" ever used to describe a size of gun-shot? What was used
>in dueling pistols? In 18th century newspapers, hail was compared in
>size to marbles, or the eggs of various birds. There is also
>"grapeshot", and I imagine other terms describing size in terms of
>common objects.
>
>This is very likely; though perhaps the key word is "hot" -- the
>wish is, that both will get something hot.
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Joel S. Berson"
>Date: Thursday, January 3, 2008 3:22 pm
>Subject: Re: "hot corn"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
> > At 1/2/2008 09:37 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> > >Not in HDAS, and not perfectly clear why it should mean what it seems
> > to mean:
> > >
> > > Some were so uncharitable as to say "I hope in God both may
> > > get their hot corn."
> > > New York Herald, August 28, 1841, p. 2, col. 1 [referring
> > > to a duel between August Belmont and a gentleman from South Carolina]
> > >
> > >Hot corn was sold from buckets on the streets, then, and was
> > >regarded as a summertime treat, at least for the lower orders.
> >
> > I assume it means "get their just deserves" :-)
> >
> > Was "corn" ever used to describe a size of gun-shot? What was used
> > in dueling pistols? In 18th century newspapers, hail was compared in
> > size to marbles, or the eggs of various birds. There is also
> > "grapeshot", and I imagine other terms describing size in terms of
> > common objects.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.orgWas
> "corn" ever used to describe a size of gun-shot? What was used
>in dueling pistols? In 18th century newspapers, hail was compared in
>size to marbles, or the eggs of various birds. There is also
>"grapeshot", and I imagine other terms describing size in terms of
>common objects.
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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