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

[Laurence Horn]

And of course "cuspidor" figures in that "Toreador" song from _Carmen_.  Well, in the version we used to sing, anyway.  "Spittoon" wouldn't have worked nearly as well for the meter or rhyme scheme.  "Stevedore" wouldn't have been a problem, though.

LH

On Apr 30, 2012, at 12:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> My grandfather preferred "cuspidor" to "spittoon."
>
> Fora while as a tot, I believed that "stevedore" was a variant.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 12:07 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>> Subject:      Re: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it
>> mean?
>>             (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>>>>
>>>> They were spittoons, not cigarette urns. . . .Never saw one in the
>> movies, only in bars.
>>
>> A spittoon plays prominently in "Rio Bravo" (1959), with John Wayne and
>> Dean Martin.
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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

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