The African Dodger (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Garson O'Toole]

JL: Thanks for this interesting metaphorical use of "African Dodger".
There was thread about this term (with a mention of Artful dodger) in
September-October 2011. George Thompson presented some background and
great cites in 1885 from the 19th Century American Newspapers
database.

Here is a link to the start of the thread
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;e14cfb1f.1109E

Garson

On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: The African Dodger (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "African dodger" is not in OED.
>
> Here's one found serendipitously - and used metaphorically.
>
> 1956 S. L. A. Marshall _Pork Chop Hill_ (N.Y.: Morrow) 147: The Chinese
> grenadiers played African dodger, revealing head and shoulders just long
> enough to heave their potato mashers.
>
>  The earliest from NewspArch:
>
> 1889 _Boston Globe_ (Aug. 11) 19: But the African dodger still lives.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 7:00 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <
> Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
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>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>> Subject:      Re: The African Dodger (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>> Caveats: NONE
>>
>>
>> I'm confused -- I thought that the purpose was to hit the African Dodger
>> in the head with a baseball, but the referenced book talks about hitting
>> a plunger and making the Bobo drop into the water, like a modern dunking
>> booth (although it also references hitting him in the head -- like I
>> said, it's confusing.)
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>> Behalf Of
>> > Wilson Gray
>> > Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:34 AM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Subject: The African Dodger
>> >
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>> > -
>> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> > Subject:      The African Dodger
>> >
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> > -
>> >
>> > On p.15 of this GB book, the African Dodger is called, "The Bobo."
>> >
>> > http://goo.gl/odqsw
>> >
>> > --
>> > -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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