Heard on The judges: "Ripping and running"

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Apr 30 00:38:30 UTC 2011


HDAS couldn't find "ripping and running" in print till the '70s.

Believe it or not!!

(Oh. It's AAVE. Maybe that explains it....)

JL

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 6:53 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Heard on The judges: "Ripping and running"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Forty-ish, black male speaker:
>
> "I was still _rippin' 'n' runnin'_ in the clubs at the time, your
> honor. But, now, I'm more mature."
>
> Judge Mathis:
>
> "You done got too old for it, huh?"
>
> [...]
> "I was _rippin' 'n' runnin'_, duckin' 'n' weavin', trying to get out of
> there!"
>
>
> In fact, I've heard "ripping and running" still being used (I learned
> from my grandmother, b.1893) in natural speech on numerous occasions.
> It's just, in this case, it was only a few minutes ago.
>
> --
> -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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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