Heard on The Judges: _front NP off_

[Jonathan Lighter]

Got any theories about "jone"?

It's in HDAS (as "joan") back to 1939 but w/o ety.

JL

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 9:36 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:      Heard on The Judges: _front NP off_
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Judge Greg "I Went From Jail To Judge In Fifteen Years" Mathis, a
> black man born in Detroit in 1960, is congratulating a plaintiff on
> the latter's having bounced back from spousal-abuse, prison, and
> heroin addiction to become a model citizen, loving husband, and
> devoted father. The judge says several of his ace-boons,    now major
> players in the boojie community, likewise had to overcome an
> unfortunate youth, as had the judge himself. People like "my man...
>
> "Well, I don't want to _front_ a brother _off_, so I won't call his name."
>
>
> In context, Mathis is using _front off_ to mean something like
>
> "reveal information about someone's past that will embarrass him"
>
> Hence, _front NP off_ could be paraphrased as
>
> "subject someone to public embarrassment"
>
>
> When I was an adolescent in Saint Louis in the early '50's, to _front
> [someone] off_ meant to embarrass someone publicly by means of
> word-play, especially by using some other interpretation of that
> person's own words. Constant readers of my oeuvre will recall this
> exchange between to 18-year-old girls, so I won't bother with
> retelling the entire anecdote. But, if my fans want me to,,, No? Okay.
>
> Peggy: "Diane, why don't you shut up?! Your *mouth* is too big!"
>
> Diane: "Well, at least my mouth is not as big as that *hole* you're
> standing over!"
>
> In such an event, those who heard could shout, " Damn, baby! She done
> fronted your fine ass off!" swiftly followed by a chant of "Front-off!
> Front-off!"
>
> However, by the time that the above occurred, in 1955, the term,
> _front someone off_, _front-off_ ,had become old-school and had been
> replaced by _jone_, shouted in like manner. But there was absolutely
> no distinction in meaning between the two.
>
> IAC, Mathis's use of front-off seems to be a fairly ordinary
> progression from the ca. 1950's use in StL.
>
> However, in a bit released on Lp in the '70's, Richard Pryor, as a
> would-be patron bogarting his way into an after-hour(s) joint, says to
> the proprietor,
>
> "How you going to keep me out this nasty motherfucker?! You don't
> *own* the joint! The White Man *own* the joint! He just _fronting_
> your black ass _off_! I knew your mama when she was whoring!"
>
>
> Regardless of the number of times that I've listened to this bit, the
> only conclusion that I can reach is that, in Pryor's use, _front off_
> means, somewhat lamely - because it's so transparent - "use as a
> front."
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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