feed of what???

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Laurence Horn  wrote:
>
> At 11:22 AM -0400 10/22/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >There is a ribald song about Aladdin sung widely in the Royal Navy for the
> >past sixty-odd years that employs the following refreain:
> >
> >Fa la la la, fa la la lee,
> >Sixteen annas, one rupee,
> >Feed of arse up a sycamore tree,
> >Poor bugger Janner!
> >
> >Remarkable, wot?  "Janner" is a West Countryman, a name often used in
> >reference to Plymouth dockyard workers. But nobody seems to know what "feed
> >of arse" means.
>
> There was a posting about this song, and verse, on the Straight Dope
> message board, but without relevant clarification:
> http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=189398
>
> and 11 actual (which apparently counts as "about 3,800") hits on
> google for "feed of arse" without the sycamore restriction, but I'm
> not sure any resolve the query.

Google Books shows this in a footnote in Harford Montgomery Hyde's 1970 book
_The Other Love: an Historical and Contemporary Survey of Homosexuality in
Britain_ (also published as _The Love that Dared not Speak its Name_):

"The term used in the Navy for buggery was 'a feed of arse' or, just 'a feed'."

...with no further explanation.


--Ben Zimmer

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