"shoot" = " have a (male) orgasm, 'come' " in 1772?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sorry.

I was momentarily distracted by a clamor, and within thirty seconds my train
of thought had been dynamited by metaphorical desert raiders of the sort
once led in actuality by T. E. Lawrence.

JL
On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:46 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "shoot" = " have a (male) orgasm, 'come' " in 1772?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7/2/2010 10:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >It's "spend" and "spent."
>
> I see I'm too hung up in measuring en-dashes (which are often exact
> matches to the number of missing letters) and four-letter words!  :-)
>
>
> >Long esses and all that.
> >
> >See original page here:
> >http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/images.jsp?doc=177209090019
> >
> >JL
>
> Yes, Jon, I had seen the long esses, as should have been clear from my
> message.
>
> Joel
>
>
> >On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 10:13 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
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> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > > Subject:      "shoot" = " have a (male) orgasm, 'come' " in 1772?
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > "f--d" as an 18th-century euphemism?  Not!  But perhaps "shot"
> > > ("shoot", intr., past tense) for " have a (male) orgasm, 'come' ",
> > > either postdates c1470 or antedates 1879-80?
> > >
> > > In the same Old Bailey case from which Fred reported "sucked it"
> > > [1772 _Old Bailey Proceedings_ 9 Sept. (www.londonlives.org)], there
> > > is a deposition that is transcribed by "London Lives" as:
> > >
> > > "after he came there he worked his y - d till he made it f - d in his
> > > hand;"
> > >
> > > But if one digs a little deeper, first there is a later deposition
> > > transcribed as:
> > >
> > > "that then he put his hand into his breeches, and got hold of his y -
> > > d; that then he worked his y - d till he s - t in his hand".
> > >
> > > And then one sees that the typeset "Old Bailey Proceedings" has a
> > > long-s in both instances.
> > >
> > > Page 355 has:
> > >
> > > "Brittles: No; and when he was drinking then he asked him to go out
> > > into the backyard; that he went out to make water, and the man
> > > followed him, put his hand in his breeches, and pulled out his y--d
> > > ... and so he pushed onward to the vault; that after he came there he
> > > worked his y--d tll he made it s -- d in his hand ..."
> > >
> > > Page 366 has:
> > >
> > > "... then he worked his y--d till he s--t in his hand ..."
> > >
> > > I suppose "s -- t" is "shot", from "shoot, v." sense "[1.] {dag}e. Of
> > > fluids, tears, blood, etc.: To issue suddenly, stream out. Obs.",
> > > although the OED's only two cites are c1470.  Or perhaps sense 18,
> > > for which there is "[18.]  e. intr. To ejaculate; orig. in phr. to
> > > shoot one's roe. slang.', but the earliest OED quotation there is
> > > 1879-80.  (Searching through this long entry was not fun.)
> > >
> > > But what is "s -- d"?
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
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