_Boody_ "arse" vs. _booty_ "id."

Tue May 17 03:35:20 UTC 2011

For some reason, for a minute, it struck me as important that BE
[budI] not become mistakenly accepted by people who ought to know
better as a mere extension of sE _booty_, the conflation of the BE
string and the sE string being a very recent artifact.

This was triggered by the sight, in the local Wegner's, of a new
trash-food that has the brand-nam, "My Sister's Booty." This name is
nonsense, when _booty_ is understood only in its standard acceptation.
However, if the semantics of BE [budI] be attached to this brand-name,
then "My Sister's Booty" acquires a snickeringly-creepy, incestuous
overtone.

I was reminded of Edwin Newman's baseless assertion that
like-insertion came into standard English from Negro dialect. Many
conclusions can be drawn from this claim. One is that desgregation
will lead to the debasing of the English language as white people know
and love it. If Newman were alive todaay, this would probably kill
him!

In the case of [budI], however, what we have is the debasing of Black
English by white people.

I've since decided to follow the advice of fellow-St. Louisan, Bobby
McFerrin: "Don't worry! Be happy." Thangs be's that way.

Under circumstances like unto these, my mother says,

"If you're getting mad, then you better get *glad*!"

I've long assumed that this is a general-American saying, since it's
"clearlly" the basis of the commercial pun-slogan,

"You better get glad!"

I've recently - about six weeks or so ago - come to find out that, for
many people - well, for my wife and those related to her, at least -
this phrase exists only as the advertising slogan.

Youneverknow.

--
-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

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 8:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: _Boody_ "arse" vs. _booty_ "id."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> But seriously.
>
> If any common AAVE term is from Africa, it could be "boody/booty."
>
> The glib ety. from "body" is not very satisfactory; and the referent
> is universal (I almost wrote "inescapable," but that would be ridiculous).
> So it seems, was the term, but only in AAVE until the advent of hiphop. If
> early printings take the form "booty," that may be only because writers and
> proofreaders assumed it was just a sense development of that SE word.
>
> It could be, via the cliche' that pirates and conquistadors went in search
> of "gold and booty." (What else could they be after?) But that strikes me as
> a little too literary, even if the average ten-year-old didn't know what
> "booty" meant.
>
> Any reasonable ety. suggestions?
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 7:02 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: _Boody_ "arse" vs. _booty_ "id."
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Damned prescriptivists! They're everywhere!
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 12:38 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Â > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> > -----------------------
>> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject: Â  Â  Â _Boody_ "arse" vs. _booty_ "id."
>> >
>> >
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Some may remember an earlier post in which I mentioned the case in
>> > which a black male author's use of "boody" was _sic_-ed by a black
>> > female reviewer. My first impression was that she was annoyed by his
>> > use of the obscenity. Further reading revealed that it was, rather,
>> > the author's use of the spelling, _boody_, instead of -_booty_ .
>> >
>> > IAC, the book is Don't The Moon Look Lonesome and its author is Stanley
>> > Crouch.
>> >
>> > As for my further blather about "emphatic devoicing" being the
>> > probable origin of the feeling that the proper spelling of "boody" is
>> > _booty_, causing people to relate the word to _booty_ in the pirate
>> > sense, a clear example of this can be heard in the rap, Rapper's
>> > Delight, by the Sugar Hill Gang. The rapper has the audience repeat
>> > after him:
>> >
>> > "I. Am. Somebah.Tea!"
>> >
>> > --
>> > -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."
>>
>> Â ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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