Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

The cock =  pussy business is not just a black thing. Many Southern  Duke freshmen terrified their Yankee roommates by expressing a desire to "get some cock this weekend" back in the days of segregation.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

-----Original Message-----
From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>

Date: Wed, 8 Apr 2009 22:12:38
To: <ronbutters at aol.com>
Cc: <ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu>
Subject: Re: Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"


Damn! Nobody ever explained it to me that way, before! The connection
between "cock" and "bird" in that sexual sense had never occurred to
me. But, don't forget, in the BE of my era, "cock" as a slang term has
only the mirror-image meaning, "vagina" and "cock" = male chicken" is
referred to only as "rooster."

It was years before a white friend was kind enough to explicate the
pun involved in the name/movie title, "Rooster Cockburn." Prior to my
hearing the explanation, the title of the movie, for me, might as well
have been "John Doe." OTOH, the punch lines of the
thigh-slapping-funny-to-adolescent-black-boys joke,

Q. By the way, you fuck?
A. Yes ma'am! Eat cock, too!

would probably have been a mystery to most, if not all, white hearers,
since the joke made not the slightest reference to homosexuality, it
being the case that "eat cock" meant specifically to "suck or lick the
'pearl tongue' or clitoris.

-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 6:30 PM,  <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  ronbutters at AOL.COM
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hey, a cock is a bird! But is there a Spanish reflex for my hijo de Juan?
> ------Original Message------
> From: Bill Palmer
> Sender: ADS-L
> To: ADS-L
> ReplyTo: ADS-L
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"
> Sent: Apr 8, 2009 2:10 PM
>
> In some Spanish-speaking countries, "pajaro" (bird) is used in that way.
>
> Bill Palmer
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 12:13 PM
> Subject: Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Heard on Jerry Springer: "the bird is the word"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Two mid-twenty-ish black men, cousins from somewhere behind the Cotton
>> Curtain, judging by their speech patterns, are having an argument, one
>> having confessed to having had sex with the other's girlfriend. One
>> asks, clearly referring to the other's genitalia - he points to them -
>> "Why did you take out your_bird_, man? What made you pull out your
>>_bird_?"
>>
>>
>> I first heard the gesture, "the finger," referred to as "the bird" -
>> she had to explain to me what she meant - Â ca.1971 at UC Davis by a
>> female classmate from the wilds of the Deep Northern California
>> boondocks. I've since heard it randomly used, here and there.
>>
>> However, this is the first time that I've ever heard the penis
>> referred to as "your_bird_."
>>
>> -Wilson
>> ā?"ā?"ā?"
>> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org