bump (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW. the name, "the bump," was resurrected in the '70's as the name
of a dance that consisted of literally the rhythmic bumping of a
random part of one's own body against a random part of one's partner's
body, e.g. head against knee. IIRC, both Joe Tex [tEk] and Rufus
Thomas had records out celebrating this dance.

Sometimes, a song is written and a dance is made up to go with it (the
twist) or a dance is made up and a song is written to go with it (the
bump). Most often, dances are up made that have nothing to do with any
one rhythm (the seven-step, the cheek-to-cheek bucket o' blood, in
which latter a variant of the OED 1946 definition of _bump_ was
prominently featured: the rhythmic thrusting of the girl's mons
Veneris against the boy's mons pubis).

-Wilson

On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      bump (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> The OED has 1946 for this sense of "bump" (I.1.e): " The action of
> thrusting forward the abdomen or hips in a dance or the like"
>
> This 1932 map of Harlem:
> http://assets.bigthink.com/images/strangemaps/22867/map.jpg
>  has "Doing the "BUMP" - a dance."
>
> It also has early cites for reefer, hotcha, and snakehips.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-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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