"snap"

[Wilson Gray]

That sounds like the "in-your-face" literal finger-snap. A great
example is shown in the old, 1976, neo-blaxploitation movie, Car Wash,
in which Antonio "Huggy Bear/Saran Saranwrap" Fargas plays a gay
carwasher. When one of the straight carwashers tries to gay-bash him
metaphorically, Fargas replies:

"I'm more *man* than you will ever *be* and and more *woman* than you
will ever *get*! [Snap!!!]

In this case, the snap is literally an in-yo-face finger-snap in the
other carwasher's face, emphasizing the fact that he's been joned
with/downed and challenging him to *try* to compose a comeback.

But jones such as this one have no comeback. In the movie, the
would-be basher simply says nothing, as would be the case in real
life, there being nothing to say. When someone puts his back up
against the wall, draws his guns, and fires on yo' ass, gunning you
out the saddle like that, ain't nothing you *can* do, bisSEP grin 'n'
bear it..

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain





On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "snap"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Perhaps related, perhaps not: I've seen references to some African
> American folklore collections by Smitherman titled _Snaps_ and
> _Double Snaps_ related to playing the dozens. Witty
> comebacks/put-downs?
>
> I've heard my kids talk about the use of "snap": they don't use it,
> but classmates do. It's used it to mark/emphasize/punctuate a
> zinger/put-down. Much like below. But not just in gay culture. My
> kids associate it with girls in their classes. I don't think I've
> heard it around campus in passing.
>
> I've read, but haven't heard, that the one that is used in the Boston
> area is "salted!" See recent BG Magazine article.
>
> ---Amy West
>
>>Date: Â  Â Tue, 7 Apr 2009 11:01:38 -0700
>>From: Â  Â Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>Subject: Re: "snap"
>>
>>On Apr 6, 2009, at 7:16 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>
>>> Â ...
>>> Â This question is addressed especially to Wilson, because it's in his
>>> Â posts
>>> Â that I remember seeing it, but of course it's open to anyone. What's
>>> Â with
>>> Â the written / (spoken?) interjection "Snap!"?
>>
>>
>>from the Urban Dictionary under "snap" (entry 31):
>>
>>Pertaining to the Gay snap culture in the 80's. It's used to puncuate
>>an insult by snapping the fingers. Today it's used mostly by the young
>>black culture
>>
>>Girl, I saw your weave at Kmart...OH SNAP (*snaps fingers*)
>> Â  .....
>>
>>check out the "In Living Color" "Men on X" sketches (beginning with
>>"Men on Film"), in which Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier play two
>>flamboyantly effeminate gay men reviewing films, tv, etc. Â almost
>>every sketch had finger-snapping accompanying the opinions.
>>
>>arnold
>
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