"gun play"?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson, are you giving me the horselaugh?

(A word I haven't heard in decades, BTW).

JL
On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 9:03 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "gun play"?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Of course it does! Else, why the euphemism?
>
> -Wilson, arsing about
>
> On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "gun play"?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > It doesn't look like "horseplay" was a euphemism for anything in 1589.
> > The OED offers another sense from about the same time (1599, but given
> > sequential priority for some reason),
> > "Play in which a horse is used or takes part; theatrical horsemanship."
> >
> > I've long assumed that the original reference was to the play of
> > high-spirited colts. (It may be only my imagination, however.)
> >
> > Does _*arseplay_ even exist?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Robin Hamilton <
> > robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com> wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at BTINTERNET.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: "gun play"?
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> > @Larry:
> >> >
> >> > So, "horseplay" has been used as a euphemism for "arseplay" since at
> >> > least the 16th c. Amazing.
> >> >
> >> > -Wilson
> >>
> >> As in, "Stop arsing around!" which I imagine is still current, and has
> to
> >> reflect UK rather than US English, since it makes no sense when couched
> as
> >> "Stop assing around."
> >>
> >> I am reminded, for whatever reason, of the (now Sir) David Frost's
> Younger
> >> Brother Joke, current in the sixties, which emerged obliquely from
> TWTWTW.
> >>
> >> {The punch-line of which wasn't, but perhaps should have been, "fribble
> >> off,
> >> Rudolph!"}
> >>
> >> Robin Hamilton
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
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>
>
> --
> -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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