"joining giblets"

[Joel S. Berson]

George,

If you haven't decided on a meaning for your "joining giblets", I
suggest the perhaps-obvious figurative "getting into bed with,
perhaps less than willingly."  The two (joining giblets, getting into
bed) seem to have taken a similar path from the literal "wed, wedding".

Joel

At 6/7/2010 01:22 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>You're expecting another dirty posting from GAT, aren't you?  No such thing.
>
> From 1831.  The NYC newspapers then thought "news" meant "news from
> Europe", which came by means of bundles of newspapers from England
> and elsewhere, brought when saiiing ships reached port.  In order
> to get these bundles, the morning papers would send small sailboats
> out beyond the harbor and meet the ships from Europe 50 or 100
> miles off shore.  The morning papers had formed a cooperative to
> share the cost of keeping the newsboats, and shared the news.  The
> Courier & Enquirer broke from this combine and began running its
> own boat.  Then the Journal of Commerce was founded, also running
> its own boat.  After a long paragraph surveying the history of
> newsgathering in the 19th century, the editor of the Courier speaks:
>
>***  "Let us . . . take the lead . . . ; the Gazette is good for
>nothing -- the Mercantile is always asleep -- the Daily is dull and
>heavy -- the Standard no one reads or care for.  We have only one
>opponent, he of the Journal of Commerce, to contend against, and we
>can beat him with all his assumed piety."  Accordingly we obtained
>our news boats, made our arrangements, beat the whole concern ten
>times our of eleven, and compelled the Journal to join giblets with
>the other sleepy editors.  ***  Here we are then, standing alone
>against this unholy alliance -- bearded and blackguarded by them all.  ***
>         Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, November 5, 1831, p. 2, col. 3
>
>This expression is not in HDAS.  The OED has one quotation in an
>applicable sense: 1769 Stratford Jubilee II. i. 29 If your
>ladyship's not engaged, what's the reason but we may join giblets
>without any pribble-prabble?  (definition 2c, "transf. with
>reference to a human being. "to levy one's giblets": ? to summon up
>one's courage. "to join giblets": to marry.")
>
>Well, maybe it does mean "doing the nasty", but it can't have been
>very dirty, if it got into a 1831 newspaper.
>GAT
>
>George A. Thompson
>Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre",
>Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org