Bad Girls speak

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Jan 26 02:37:15 UTC 2010


At 7:45 PM -0500 1/25/10, Wilson Gray wrote:
>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.
>[...]

Gives a whole new meaning to "Big Box Store".

LH

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