"Drop a hard _J_"

[Wilson Gray]

Used on the Comedy Channel sitcom, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,
wherein it has the meaning,

To use "Jew" in conversation and not "Jewish"

It;s not in the UD and the earliest instance that I've found in Google is,

dan the jew
drop a hard J

July 12 2006 6:04 PM

http://goo.gl/pWnQa


When I checked HDAS for "hard J," I came across _hard leg_. This was
an everyday term in the Saint Louis of my day. The intonation pattern
was such that, for StL, the "correct" spelling is _hardleg_, as Majot
spells it.. It was a mildly-disparaging term for any random male,
unknown to the speaker, of any age. It was mildly disparaging the
extent that it was applied only to someone necessary to the telling of
a anecdote, but of no other pertinence.

Man, I was a hawking a *fine* chick! Till I saw some hardleg run up on
her and it looked like she knew him.

_Hardleg_ was never applied to women or girls. But, somehow, I've long
had the impression that the term was originally applied to "female
impersonators" - back in the day, terms like "cross-dresser" and
"transvestite" were unknown in the 'hood - because of their "hard" -
muscular - legs. "Softleg" was occasionally used for a girl or a
woman, as you might expect.

Speaking of _Major_, Major Lance was hardly the first black male to
bear that as a first name. During my childhood, I had a couple of
schoolmates by that name. And I really envied them for their cool
name. And when I discovered that "Frank" Willis was officially
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt" Willis, OMG!

But that was then.

--
-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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