"get ones ashes hauled", and sweeping ones (or someones) chimney

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Get your ashes hauled" looks far more recent.  The sweepers must already
have had the reputation and Freud can tell you why.

If it wasn't deserved.

JL

On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 11:12 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "get ones ashes hauled", and sweeping ones (or someones)
> chimney
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As a by-product of investigation into why chimney sweeps were
> associated in the 18th century with sexual activity, George Thompson
> brought up the metaphor "get ones ashes hauled".
>
> 1)  George provides some quotations below.
>
> 2)  There's also "get your broom dusted" and  "get your chimney swept
> out."  [Google hits, not documented below.]
>
> 3)  Is there anything in the etymology or history besides the
> (obvious?) image of "chimney" as either (or both) phallus and vagina?
>
> Joel
>
> >From: George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> >To: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net>
> >Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:05:17 -0400
> >Subject: Re: Sexual meaning of chimney and chimney sweeps in the 18th
> >  century?
> >
> >
> >See that spider : climbing up the wall
> >Hunt some place : to get his ashes hauled
> >Wiley Barner, 1927
> >
> >Lord when you see the spider : Lord a-running up and down the wall
> >He must be going somewhere : great God to try and have his ashes hauled
> >Frank Stokes, 1927
> >
> >and a half dozen from the 30s
> >
> >A concordance to Pre-War blues:
> >http://www.dylan61.se/taft.htm
> >
> >George A. Thompson
> >Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
> >Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at att.net>
> >Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010 11:10 am
> >Subject: Re: Sexual meaning of chimney and chimney sweeps in the
> >18th  century?
> >To: George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> >
> > > At 7/17/2010 12:37 PM, George Thompson wrote:
> > > >Which is, to refer to an old expression I've only encountered in
> > > >blues lyrics: to get one's ashes hauled = to get laid.
> > >
> > > New to me.  I Googled "ashes hauled" -- and then added
> > > "chimney".  It's in slang and (the) urban dictionaries, there's
> > > speculation on its etymology, references to blues lyrics, and even
> > > the question "For example, what exactly happens when you get your
> > > "ashes hauled" or your "broom dusted"?" and the expression "Get your
> > > chimney swept out."
> > >
> > > Google Books has nothing earlier than 1981 ("Slang and euphemism: a
> > > dictionary of oaths, curses, insults, ...", No preview).
> > >
> > > Is there anything in this besides the (obvious?) "chimney" as either
> > > (both) phallus and vagina? Should we round up the usual suspects on
> > > ADS-L and propose a research project into the earliest appearance?
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
>
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