Bad Girls speak

[Wilson Gray]

Didn't "boy toy" once, like a quarter-century or so ago, mean "a girl
who is but a toy for boys"? "Easy," as was said in prehistory?

I notice from HDAS that Shakespeare used _box_ with the meaning
relevant to "eat ... box." It's unclear from the cite whether one also
spoke of "eating" someone's box, in Shakespeare's time.

Everyone knows that, in certain environments, _ass_ = _pussy_. In the
BE of '50's Saint Louis, _box_ also = _arse_. "I love you, baby / But
I'm crazy 'bout lollipops," refrain of a mildly-popular R&B silly-song
of the day, was parodied as "... / But I'm crazy 'bout yo' big box."
If it became necessary to clarify, since _box_ still retained its
historical meaning, "_mezzanine_ box" was used for "arse." This was
only very rarely the case, since _a big box_ = "a big arse" is easily
visible to the casual stare and a desirable asset <har! har!>, whereas
_a box_ in its original slang meaning is not not ordinarily visible,
nor is a *big* one desirable.

In Dutch, _kut_ = "cunt," whereas _kont_ has completely shifted to
"arse" and _aars_ has been specialized to "anus."

Someone should write a thesis on the semantic shifts involved in this
shit. <har! har!>

Judging by examples in Facebook and on Google, people named Grootaers,
wherein _groot_ = "great, large" and _aers_ is the Flemish and
archaic-Dutch spelling of _aars_, feel no social pressure to change
their names.

-Wilson

-Wilson

-Wilson



On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:00 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Bad Girls speak
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Time for an update on sociolinguistic items exposed to the cable audience by
> the young ladies of The Bad Girls Club.  Few are brand-new, but the
> "reality" element of the show, at least insofar as the dialogue is
> concerned, shows these and similar utterances are "out there."  All the
> speakers are women.
>
> "Kendra sets her sights on a sexy new boy toy."  (Not a younger man
> regularly "dated" by an older woman, just a casual boyfriend/ sex partner.
> The narrator is the speaker.)
>
> "I wouldn't eat anyone's box!"
>
> "Please let Annie grow some freakin' balls and do something about Natalie
> bothering her."
>
> "You either lick the cooter or stick the cooter." (You can't be bisexual.)
>
> "You should square up with Angel. Hear his side of the story." (App.,
> be candid or forthcoming.)
>
> "My coochie is all shaved."
>
> Sociologists: At one point they playfully try to get Kendra's new boy toy
> to demonstrate inflatable masturbation animals brought from the sex toy
> convention.
>
> Folklorists & Freudians: At Speed Dating, Natalie asks prospective
> boyfriends, without introductory context, "Which do you think is more
> important? The size of the boat, or the motion of the ocean?"  As she
> explains to her mansionmates later, "If he says the size of the boat, it
> means he has a tiny penis."
>
> Google Groups has the question from 1994, but a (very) cursory search
> doesn't find any exx. of Natalie's depth-psychology analysis.  There must be
> some though.
>
> JL
>
>
>    --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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