article on the name "America"

[Jonathan Lighter]

A quick scan of NewspaperArchive suggests that the _playboy_, 'a usu.
wealthy, devil-may-care fellow who is very popular with women' became
popular in the U.S. only after the introduction, ca1919-20, of the "Jordan
Playboy," a sportscar.

The first individual referred to in print as a "playboy" in this sense may
have been Babe Ruth, in 1920, a "rollicking, jovial playboy."

JL
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 5:04 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: article on the name "America"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> For def. 2 of "playboy," The latest OED offers  "A person, usually a
> wealth=
> y
> man, who leads a life of pleasure, *esp.* one who behaves irresponsibly or
> is sexually promiscuous."
>
> I pass over the question of whether a female can be a playboy. I believe
> th=
> e
> two nuances should be split up into "irresponsible pleasure-seeker" and
> "sexually promiscuous fellow."
>
> (Actually, I don't think it's the literal sexual promiscuity that defines
> the playboy, it's the number of women he dates.  There was a time, young
> 'uns, when the concepts were not absolutely and necessarily identical.)
>
> Anyway, the reason for my niggling is that in 1960-61 I had a sixtyish
> American history teacher, named Mr. Bowman, who frequently reproved us for
> being "a bunch of playboys." If somebody launched a spitball, for example,
> Bowman would cut him down as a "playboy."
>
> This struck me as pathetic even at the time.  Because by 1960 everybody and
> his brother knew that a "playboy" was defined exclusively by hot dates and
> frenetic socializing with the opposite sex. The launcher of spitballs
> and reader of comic books was not even in the same universe as the playboy.
> (For proof, all you had to do was visit the newsstand.) To be called a
> "playboy" was thus quite a compliment, albeit a contextually ridiculous
> one.  Bowman never caught on to this.
>
> In fact, by the time in college when I heard of Synge's _The Playboy of the
> Western World_ I could hardly believe it was written in 1909.  Did they
> eve=
> n
> have "playboys" then?
>
> So I think the def. should be refined and split up.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 1:40 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: article on the name "America"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 10:08 AM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > the screw-anything-that-moves sex lives of the natives.
> >
> >
> > Uh, like, I don't want to come across as a sexist pig or as a racist,
> > but, well, the fact of the matter is that, when I was stationed in
> > Europe in the Army, I couldn't avoid thinking,:
> >
> > "Damn! This must be the way that the white studs felt, when they
> > 'discovered' America and the South Sea Islands!"
> >
> > As *seriously* lame and nerdy as I was back in The World, I was a
> > stone player (not "playa"; back then, a "player" was only a playboy,
> > in the old-fashioned sense of that word - I exaggerate WRT myself, of
> > course - with no connection to pimping or any other form of
> > physically- and psychologically-brutal abuse and exploitation of
> > women, or the word might even merely a "professional" gambler, like
> > the legendary, folk-heroic Stavin Chain) in Germany and Holland.
> > Actually, the word was so empty of content that "player' could replace
> > "man" as a trivially-hipper term of address. IAC, in Europe, I was, in
> > the BE phrase, "turnin' *back* pussy."
> >
> > I was going to go anecdotal with a full explanation as to why my
> > self-quote night be considered "sexist." But, WTF? Does anybody really
> > care?
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > =96=96=96
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint
> t=
> o
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > =96Mark Twain
> >
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>
>
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