Heard on The Judges: "KEEP" = always have; "on-the-corner" = whoring

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Mar 5 18:30:20 UTC 2009


Twenty-ish, black (gay-)male speakers:

A. I *work*. I KEEPs a job. What about you?"

B. [_Joning with_ A] "_On-the-corner_ (i.e. working on a street corner
as a prostitute) doesn't count. *I* have a *square* job."


This particular use of "KEEP" is old and universal in BE.
"On-the-corner" is new to me.

-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

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list