up the yin-yang

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Out the ying-yang" means even more abundantly provided.

HDAS secret files have both forms in print from the early '70s, with
somebody on _Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In_ being called "you ying-yang" in
1969.

"_Ying-yang_ appears to have referred to various below-the-belt anatomical
features from the '50s.

GB finds a 1968 "up the ying-yang" in what's evidently a Korean War context.
Since Yin and Yang are principle features of the South Korean flag, this
doesn't surprise me.

FWIW, the Japanese Hinomaru emblem, the red disk that appears on the
national flag and on Japanese aircraft, was sometimes referred to during
WWII as the "flaming asshole."

By the same people who spoke of FSOT.

JL

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC,
71700 <lynne.hunter at navy.mil> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Hunter, Lynne R CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-PACIFIC, 71700"
>              <lynne.hunter at NAVY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: up the yin-yang
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I recall my father using "up the ying-yang" ("ying-yang" intended as
> "kazoo" or "wazoo") _at least_ as early as the 1960s; he was a
> self-educated, working-class white guy. ("Yin-yang" must have been for
> the _college-educated_ white guys.)
>
> Lynne Hunter
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Monday, September 26, 2011 1:19
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: up the yin-yang
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: up the yin-yang
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:13 AM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>
> wrote:
> > 1976
>
> And it was already in use sixteen years earlier, when I first heard
> it. My impression is that I first heard it in 1960 not because it was
> new, but because I hadn't had sufficient social interaction with
> college-grade white guys before that year. I don't think that the
> phrase ever gained any traction among blacks. But, of course,
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> I recall "up the ying-yang" as the catchphrase of a former
> barracksmate who retired a few years ago from the U of Chi as Deputy
> Dean of Students and Dean of Services.
>
> That was Ed Turkington, all 6'8" of him, if there are any U of Chi
> readers wondering who I mean.
>
> --
> -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
>
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