"_Cut_ the fool" and "_cut_ the slave" (not really interesting)

[Neal Whitman]

Is it the same "cut" as in "Everybody cut footloose"?

Neal

On Aug 5, 2012, at 8:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "_Cut_ the fool" and "_cut_ the slave" (not really
>              interesting)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 7:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> My feeling is that _cut_ is pretty much the same in both cases. It's like
>> "act."  But I could be persuaded otherwise.    (I'm familiar with "cut the
>> fool" from reading, and I'm doubtful concerning the part that says,
>> _"esp...White people...tricks."_)
>
> What I had in mind was the road traveled by _cut_ on its way to
> meaning something like "act (like), do like."
>
> As for "esp...White people…tricks," I agree completely. I didn't
> mention it because of the problem inherent in contradicting The
> World's Second-Greatest Authority, and so foerh and so on.
>
> The fact of the matter is that, until *very* recently, there wasn't
> enough contact between blacks and whites to justify a claim of "esp."
> But I must confess that I sometimes forget this, myself. Back when
> y'all were putting down the The Closer for her poor command of the
> (upper-)middle-class Southern-white-female dialect, I came close to
> interjecting a "Y'all crazy! She good!" Then I caught myself. Wait a
> minute! How in the world could *I* be knowing anything about that
> dialect?
>
> --
> -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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