hep (two, three, four)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not that there *was* a sergeant, but no. That kind of "Hep" (or "Hup"
etc.) occurs in a frozen idiom.

JL

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 1:33 PM, 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: hep (two, three, four)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 7/18/2010 01:14 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Both forms antedate the jazz era, and both appear in the speech of whites.
> >Not that that proves anything either.
>
> They were just trying to pass.
>
> >OTOH, that was probably the last time I heard anybody say "hep" in
> >spontaneous speech.
>
> Was the sergeant not spontaneous?
>
> Joel
>
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