Heard on the street:

[Wilson Gray]

Thirty-ish black speaker:

"I'm going to have to shake a monkey _one time_ on this son of a bitch."


I have no idea what "shake a monkey" means, having heard it only that
one time, though I could make a WAG. However, I'm just noting an
instance of the use of of "one time" as an intensifier that has
nothing to do with time or with the number of instantiations of an
action. Back in the 'Fifties in Saint Louis, when cigarette-smoking
was merely hip, as opposed to being a full-blown habit, among studs of
my age group,

Say, man! Why don't you save me the short, one time?

I.e., don't discard the butt of that Philip Morris. Pass it over to me
so that I can smoke it. Period. Not just this one time.

Let me hold a Benny Franklin, one time?

I.e., lend me a half-dollar. (In real life, the sentence would be,
"Lend me half-a-dollar, one time.")

Of course, this could also be used in the standard manner, as in the
famous, "One time, when I was at band camp ..." "Proper English" is
always recognized as grammatically correct, though, in certain cases,
it might not be recognized as socially correct, whether positively:
"heavy," or negatively: "lame."

I'm still talking about Saint Louis in the 'Fifties, of course, when
didn't urrbody say no "urrbody" and didn't nobody know where Natural
Bridge Road was.

-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

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