The bird

[Dan Goncharoff]

I read this as "slip the bird", as in "let slip the bird which he had in
his hand". But then, what do I know?

DanG

On 3/4/2010 9:23 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: The bird
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have no doubt that the meaning in the following is quite literal, but
> it is still interesting because it is the only one of its kind that I
> found pre-1900
>
> http://bit.ly/bcfK2q
>
> For this to have been a euphemism, there would have to have been a
> breakdown in communication, at some point, for Harris (the translator)
> means it quite literally.
>
>       VS-)
>
> On 3/4/2010 7:22 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> The photo in question appeared in 1996 in Geoffrey C. Ward's _Baseball_,
>> written to accompany Ken Burns's TV series.
>>
>> As HDAS notes, _Funk&   Wagnall's Standard Dictionary_ of 1890-93 amazingly
>> includes the phrase "give someone the finger," somewhat lamely defined, and
>> with no apparent suggestion of obscenity.
>>
>> My  SWAG is that the gesture became widespread/ familiar to the "educated"
>> in the 1880s, which seems to imply a long underground existence.
>>
>> Maybe it was popularized during the Civil War.
>>
>> I've never seen any documentation earlier than the photo.  In the light
>> of the gesture's apparent existence in Ancient Rome, one can only guess that
>> it may have been introduced into modern American culture by (very
>> conservative) Italian immigrants.  Another SWAG, of course.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 5:08 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC<
>> Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil>   wrote:
>>
>>
>>
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