"man or beast"

[Laurence Horn]

On Sep 30, 2013, at 11:07 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> "Man or beast" with the latter as "girlfriend" must be the same error
> as "music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".
>
> Joel

I was going to suggest rhyming slang:  "my femine" > "my feast or famine" > "my feast" > "my beast".

For me, the "man or beast" collocation is inextricably linked to W. C. Fields.

LH
>
> At 9/30/2013 02:50 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> For one, brief, shining moment in '50's Los Angeles, _beast_ was extracted
>> from this collocation and used among the young men of the local black
>> bourgeoisie as a slang-term for "girlfriend."
>>
>> --
>> -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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org