"spoofy" and "shimming" in Utah, 1919

[Victor Steinbok]

Just to be clear, "get[ing] [] jollies off" can be both ambiguous and
unambiguous. The two OED quotations represent both (in reverse order,
with "off" missing in the first):

> 1957    M. Shulman Rally round Flag, Boys! (1958) ix. 100   If she
> wasn't so goddam busy..then he wouldn't be thinking about getting his
> jollies elsewhere!
> 1962    in H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang Suppl.
> (1967) 686/1   The owner of this place gets his jollies by walking
> around most of the day in a Sioux war bonnet.

The Shulman quote simply cannot be interpreted in any other way--let's
just say that "he" is not "making merry" because "she" is "so goddam busy".

     VS-)

On 3/6/2011 3:53 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> Speaking of jolly:
>
>>  III. 7. a. Amorous; amatory; wanton, lustful.
>>  b. Of animals: In heat. Obs. exc. dial.
>
> Oddly enough, no "jolly" in this sense for noun. Jolly n.4 comes the
> closest, although it overlaps other adjective meanings:
>
>> colloq.  Short for jollification n.; so, a thrill of enjoyment or
>> excitement, as in phr. *to get one's jollies*. Also jollyo, jolly-up.
>> Cf. jollo n.
>
> Cassell's Dict. of Slang is much more direct:
>
>> orgasm
>
> A simple search for "jollies off" shows a lot of "getting jollies off"
> in the latter sense and very little in the former. Why beat around the
> bush?
>
>     VS-)

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