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

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 5, 2012, at 9:13 PM, Neal Whitman wrote:

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

Or "cut a caper"?
>
> On Aug 5, 2012, at 8:10 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> 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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>
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