"Blue balls"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 1:36 AM, Wilson Gray<hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> When I was a freshman in high school, Harry Gleason, the asshole who
> sat in front of me, used to use the just-for-the-hell-of-it phrase:
>
> "_Blue-balled_ bastard from Piss-Pot Creek"
>
> This, (9/1950) was the first time that I had heard "blue balls" or any
> of its variations, combinations, permutations, or probabilities. The
> phrase, in that context or any other, meant nothing to me and
> continued to mean nothing till ca.1991. When a (white) friend happened
> to use the phrase, "blue balls," for some reason, I finally felt like
> asking what it meant. From the explanation, I divined that "blue
> balls" was the white term for "lover's nuts." That satisfied me till I
> listened to a blues recorded in 1934 by Walter Roland, whoever he was,
> of Alabama. This song opens with the verse:
>
> You know, since I lef' Cincinnati
> You know I had somethin' on my mind
> [...] the head o' my dick
> And blue balls in my groin
[...]
> IAC, this is the first time that I've ever heard "blue balls" used,
> except in its literal meaning, by a black person in my life.
> Consequently, I would have bet money, heretofore, that the average
> black male of whatever age probably had also never heard it. If it
> wasn't for the fact that, to paraphrase Dave Chapelle, "I know white
> people," I would have no idea what "blue balls in my groin / croutch"
> could possibly have meant, back in '34, since it would be brand-new to
> me.

Any possibility that Roland was using one of the other senses of "blue
balls" attested by HDAS -- either 'venereal buboes' or 'gonorrhea'?


--Ben Zimmer

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