Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"

[Wilson Gray]

Now, the replacement of "cop a squat" by "pop ...," that seems more
like an eggcorn." Or not, since the reference is to sitting anywhere
other than in a chair. Whereas, for me, "cop ..." is to sit anywhere,
but primarily in / on a chair.  You never know.

For me, to "cop ..." refers to taking a seat anywhere, but primarily
in / on a chair. Down home, the sight of a woman squatting, more or
less in public, behind a bush or, in Germany, and, at least into the
'60's, of women squatting alongside the Bundebahn, in order to
eliminate bodily wastes, the use of "cop a squat" relevant to this
meaning had never occurred to me. Yet, it's so obvious.

WRT to the Bundesbahn, males merely stood with their backs to the flow
of traffic, though there probably were occasons when a male, too, had
to cop a squat Karler Art.

-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 Thu, May 21, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Chris Blankenship
<c.n.blankenship at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Chris Blankenship <c.n.blankenship at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the late 80s early 90s near Nashville, I knew several people who
> used the phrase "pop a squat" to indicate sitting somewhere other than
> in a chair. A toilet might have applied in this case. Seems like a
> logical step.
>
>
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:03 AM, Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at missouri.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Heard on "Aqua Team Hunger Force"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Wilson's subject line is nicely eggcorny. The show is _Aqua TEEN Hunger
>> Force_ but the characters act as a team. Well, not really, but it's the part
>> of the premise that they're a team of detectives.
>>
>> Google shows that Wilson is not alone is his reanalysis.
>>
>>
>> On 5/14/09 12:31 AM, "Wilson Gray" <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>>> "Carl," a white, animated-cartoon character says:
>>>
>>> "I gotta _cop a squat_"
>>>
>>> and literally squats behind a bush in order to  _take a dump_.
>>>
>>>
>>> I've known "cop a squat" in BE with the meaning, "have a seat," since
>>> ca.1955. Â I heard it used, once, with that same meaning by a white
>>> person, to wit: Richard Belzer, in an episode of Homicide : Life on
>>> the Street, ca.1998.
>>>
>>> This is the first time that I've heard it used with a different meaning.
>>>
>>> -Wilson
>>
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