1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it mean?

[Laurence Horn]

On Apr 23, 2012, at 9:51 PM, Baker, John wrote:

>        I suspect vandalism.  Has it been checked against the same comic in a different newspaper?
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of sclements at NEO.RR.COM
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 8:50 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it mean?
>
> Google News hit, posted over at Straight Dope by an alert reader.
>
> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=plAsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=E8sEAAAAIBAJ&dq=calendar-girl&pg=4081%2C91102
>
> Betty says to Archie  "Being an usher after school must be prime."
>
> Archie replies  "Oh, it gets kinda butthole at times."
>
> How would this get by a censor if it had a modern meaning?  What did it mean in the context of the times? Not in the OED as such that I could find.
>
> Sam Clements,
>
> who assumes it meant boring or same-o same-0.
>
Not in HDAS either, which in fact doesn't have an adjectival meaning for "butthole" even from sources that wouldn't have had to deal with censors (noun, yes, from 1951, but not adjective).  Electronic tampering seems more likely to me too, although I have no idea whether or how it might be done.  Interesting little blurb about Franco vs. the monarchists there on the left.

LH

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