"What part of no don't you understand?"

Mon Jun 25 02:43:39 UTC 2012

Slightly earlier from Clay Robison, Legislators do right by elderly, poor, sick, Houston Chronicle (June 11, 1989) (ProQuest National Newspapers Premier):

AUSTIN - ``What part of NO don't you understand?''

The sign, posted in several places on the walls of the House Appropriations Committee's meeting room, elicited nervous grins from state bureaucrats and lobbyists who had survived the painful budget cuts of 1986 and 1987.

The budget writers sitting behind the big horseshoe-shaped table still uttered the dreaded, two-letter word a lot more than their audience cared to hear, but they also rediscovered the political pleasure of being able to say, ``yes.''

ProQuest has a couple more political uses of the phrase, then this brief reference from the Chicago Tribune (Feb. 1, 1990):  "Song Title of the Week: "What Part Of `No' Don't You Understand" by C. Rupp."

Wikipedia doesn't know who "C. Rupp" is.  I don't know if that's the same song that was more successfully recorded by Lorrie Morgan in 1992, but it seems likely.  That song apparently was written by Wayne Perry and Gerald Smith.

So it seems that the catchphrase began as a comic sign (there are a few other early references to signs saying this), then was transferred to a sexual context and popularized by the song written by Perry & Smith.  There probably were isolated uses in a sexual context prior to their song.

John Baker

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 4:55 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "What part of no don't you understand?"

1989 _Santa Fe Reporter_  (Oct. 19) 21 [NewspArch]: Health Watch Victor La Cerva, M.D.[:]  RAPE MYTHS  What part of "NO" don't you understand?

JL

On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 4:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> My possibly unreliable feeling is "No means no" goes back before 1963
> as a standard parental comeback to importuning youth.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:49 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "What part of no don't you understand?"
>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> The 1994 book might have been a vector, but I associate this phrase,
>> along with "No means no!", with anti-date-rape campaign on college
>> campuses that started in full somewhere in 1985-6 (some local
>> campaigns likely date earlier, but this is when it became national).
>> So 1989 Nexis date sounds just about right. But I'm not even sure that's the "origin".
>> I expect that the companion "No means no!" reaches at least into the
>> 1970s, at least in its association with anti-rape messages, but it
>> also appears that Dear Abby column might have served as a vector (in
>> broader
>> circumstances) in the early 1980s, followed by Susan Estrich's book
>> "Rape" in 1987. In either case, the phrase was already established.
>>
>> In fact, the phrase itself is older.
>>
>> ==
>> The Court Says 'No' Means 'No'
>>  Pay-Per-View -
>> Christian Science Monitor - May 17, 1961 The United States Supreme
>> Court has refused to review a decision of the Vermont Supreme Court
>> against payment from public funds of tuition for high school ...
>> ==
>>
>> http://goo.gl/Lzogw
>> ABA Journal. Volume 49 (5). May 1963
>> The Regents' Prayer Case: In the Establishment Clause "No Means No".
>> By William J. Butler. p. 444
>> > The Constitution says that the government shall take no part in the
>> > establishment of religion. No means no.
>>
>>
>> http://goo.gl/ql84V
>> Gaining Equal Rights Means A Struggle For All Women [Dear Abby]
>> Pittsburgh Press - May 12, 1980. P. A-14/5
>> > DEAR ABBY: If you could give the young parents of today just one
>> > piece of advice, what would it be? -- NEW MOTHER Start early. By
>> > consistent. A child must learn that no means no. It doesn't mean
>> > maybe. And maybe doesn't mean yes.
>>
>>
>> http://goo.gl/iz3bN
>> Grandma Must Learn To Say No [Dear Abby] Tuscaloosa News - Oct 21,
>> 1982. P. 6/2
>> > DEAR MOM: Your problem is not your sons, it's you! You haven't
>> > learned how to say no to your sons and make it stick. Start now to
>> > say no with a firmness and conviction leaves absolutely no doubt
>> > that your no means NO, and no "maybe" or "yes."
>>
>>
>> As for "What/which part of no don't you understand?", St Louis
>> Post-Dispatch appears to have one in the archives from 1989:
>>
>> St. Louis Post-Dispatch : Bond Issue For Water Passes, But...
>> $2.95 -
>> St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Feb 9, 1989 ''I've had quite a few people
>> approach me and ask which part of 'No' I didn't understand.'' But he
>> said he would approach the board tonight with a plan to ...
>>
>> Aside from that, GNA also finds a bunch of hits from 1991-2, where
>> the phrase is associated with "buttons and bumper stickers" and
>> "demonstrators". But not all of them identify it as an anti-rape
>> slogan (taxes being the other big "NO!" issue). For example,
>>
>> http://goo.gl/oJtgk
>> What The Men In Power Don't Get .
>> St. Petersburg Times - Oct 8, 1991. P. 1/6
>> > There's this motto popping up on buttons and bumper stickers that
>> > says: what part of NO don't you understand?" Perhaps we are ready
>> > to print another, and wear it around Washington, "What part of
>> > sexual harassment don't you understand?"
>>
>>
>> There are four GNA hits from 1991, starting on March 15. But what is
>> clear is that 1994 is much too late.
>>
>>     VS-)
>>
>> On 6/24/2012 9:21 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>> > What is this citation the effective origin of?  Nexis shows the
>> > phrase
>> in use back to 1989.
>> >
>> > Fred Shapiro
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ________________________________________
>> > From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf
>> > of
>> Jonathan Lighter [wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM]
>> > Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:05 AM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Subject: "What part of no don't you understand?"
>> >
>> > Asked sarcastically.
>> >
>> > The effective origin appears to be:
>> >
>> > 1994 Dennis G. Korby _What Part of No Don't You Understand?:
>> > Avoiding
>> and
>> > Defending Against Rape_ (Livonia, Mich.: Koto Press). (Published
>> > July
>> 1.)
>> >
>> > The GB distribution suggests that the phr. was flourishing by 2000.
>> >
>> > JL
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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