"unsuck" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[victor steinbok]

Not applicable to "eat shit", which is on the list for a different reason
(scatological humiliation) or "eat pussy" (truly a standout--and, I bet,
fairly rare, compared to the rest), but there is another reason why all this
terminology is associated with sausage factories, such as prisons and the
military. It's the homosexual overtones of the expressions, which provides
an additional layer of insult on top of just plain vulgarity and another way
to debase the target. In this sense, it correlates to imperatives--"Suck my
dick!", "Blow me!", "Eat me/my dick!" (but then there is also "Kiss my ass!"
and "Eat shit!", which are just scatological humiliation without added
homosexual overtones). It also parallels other insults (or mock-debasement),
particularly ones that suggest anal intercourse, e.g., "Well, that really
fucked him up the ass!", "Up yours!" (... waiting for Wilson to comment),
"Oh, yeah! He took it up the ass, like a good soldier." Once the expressions
emerge outside the confines of sausagefest, they lose the homosexuality
aspect and the additional debasement that comes with it--perhaps another
reason for partial devulgarization.

VS-)

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:

> The Vietnam Graffiti Corpus also has the closely related "sux", "blows",
> "bites" and "eats".
>
>
> OED doesn't have "sux".
> Canvas # 1574c0126
> "Weiland sux"
>
> OED has fellatio sense of "blow" from 1933, and the figurative ("To be
> contemptible, tiresome, or disagreeable; = suck v. 15f.") sense from
> 1960.
>
> Canvas #1574c0014
> "The Navy blows"
>
> Canvas # 1574c0072
> "Spanky blows"
>
>
> Canvas # 1574c0173
> "New York Blows"
>
> Canvas # 1574c0229
> "Kerby Blows"
>
>
> OED has "bite" in this sense from 9/1975.
>
> Canvas #1574c0204
> "Pettiway came by last night to get a little, but no one would give him
> any becaue [sic] [he] bites"
>
>
> General/indefinite use of "eats"; other cites include "eats shit", "eats
> pussy", "eats dick", "eats cock".
>
> OED has "to practise fellatio or cunnilingus on (a person)" from 1927;
> to "eat shit" from 1930.  The sense below feels slightly different,
> somehow -- that which is being eaten is unstated (just as what is being
> sucked is often unstated).    It could be scatological or sexual, but is
> clearly bad.
>
> Canvas #1574c0013
> "Crip eats it raw"
>
>
> Canvas #1574c0043
> "Crip eats it"

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