1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it mean?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson:

 Hehhehhehhehheh. You said, "But."

> "not fresh, down there,"

One nation divided by a common language.  If you mean, "Has anybody ever
declared 'butt' to be disgusting?" The _Century Dictionary_ (1889) says,
"The buttocks; the posteriors. [Vulgar.]."

It doesn't appear much in print till the '40s, and then only (I'd say) in
naturalist fiction.  I don't think it  become a perfectly innocuous
euphemism in the mainstream media till maybe the '90s, but that's just my
impression.

I know I wasn't supposed to say it in the 1950s, though the emotion
conveyed with the disapproval (like that for "crap") seemed to be
considerably less than that for "ass" and "shit," which I have to tell you
I lived without ever hearing till I was eleven or twelve years old. Word!

Ben:

I'd hoped a search for "April 1, 1947" + "Archie" would reveal a hundred
papers, which could then be examined for their April 2 contents.  No such
luck.

Diabolically bad luck, I'd say.

JL








On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 11:37 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: 1947 citing in Archie Comic of "butthole." What did it
> mean?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 7:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > _butt_ 'buttocks'
>
> But, it takes a *matched pair* of buttocks to make a single "butt." right?
>
> BTW, has _buttock_ or _buttocks_ ever been regarded as, well, "not
> fresh, down there," by those who decide these matters?
>
> --
> -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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