pearl-clutching

[Arnold Zwicky]

i don't know how this posting got so messed up.  i suppose it's all decipherable -- but note that  everything in the posting is a forward from Chris Ambidge, except for the last bit (below), which is from me:

On Aug 13, 2011, at 7:13 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

>
> "clutch the pearls" is in a few dictionaries of gay slang (in one,
> glossed as 'gasp'), but of course without citations or datings; these
> things are just lists of words and phrases.
>
> E. Patrick Johnson has a chapter on gay black discourse in Leap & Boellstorff (ed.), Speaking in Queer Tongues (2004), with several mentions of "clutch the pearls" (and the accompanying gesture) in this community.
>
> it also seems to have a history in the British gay cant Polari.

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