"sling arms" (not in OED2) -- [1749], 1824

[Jonathan Lighter]

> "Cheeks" right before -- implying the body part for Arms

Sounds like H.G. Wells's Martians.


JL


On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 8:00 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "sling arms" (not in OED2) -- [1749], 1824
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/18/14, 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > Date:    Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:05:35 -0400
> > From:    "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject: Re: "sling arms" (not in OED2) -- [1749], 1824
> >
> > Amy [see at end],
> >
> > At 4/17/2014 08:28 AM, Amy West wrote:
> >> >On 4/17/14, 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> >>> >>Date:    Wed, 16 Apr 2014 16:27:24 -0400
> >>> >>From:    "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> >>> >>Subject: Re: "sling arms" (not in OED2) -- [1749], 1824
> >>> >>
> >>> >>Dan,
> >>> >>
> >>> >>I think this is the best interpretation yet.  I don't find "sl?ng*
> >>> >>arm*" in the OED or "sling arms" before 1824 ("Constitution of the
> >>> >>New England Guards", p. 54, a command) in GBooks.  But John Gittins's
> >>> >>"A compleat System of Military Discipline" (1735), p. 14, does have a
> >>> >>command "Sling your Firelock" (certainly an Arm) -- hang the firelock
> >>> >>and "let fall your Hands to your Sides".
> >>> >>
> >>> >>Joel
> >> >It makes sense as a command for long firearms as they have slings on
> >> >them. Not so much for spear & sword, and I haven't heard a command like
> >> >that in 1630s pike drill.
> >> >
> >> >---Amy West
> > A good point about no slings for spear and sword ... unless we can
> > find an image (in words or picture) of Bellona with a musket ...
> > well, Wikipedia, s.v. "flintlock", says "Examples of early flintlock
> > weapons can be seen in the painting "Marie de' Medici as Bellona" by
> > Rubens (painted around 1622-25)."
> Yeah, I can't see the mechanism closely enough to determine whether in
> fact it's flintlock or matchlock (or wheelock or doglock. . . )
> >   Lots of "impressions" at Google
> > Images.  I believe that's a musket, with bayonet, in her left had,
> > perhaps resting on a sling at her waist (images are very dark).
> Nope. That's some sort of scepter or mace in her left hand.
> >
> > In passing, I note that the musket is in her*left*  hand.  Was
> > Bellona left-handed?  (Not in many images I see online.)  Or did
> > Rubens make the same error as the artist of an early seal of the
> > Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, when he portrayed an Indian, now
> > right-handed on the Great Seal of the Commonwealth, with the arrow in
> > his right hand and the bow in his left? Seehttp://tinyurl.com/pm2gyxx
> >
> > Amy, what meaning would you give to our phrase in "Her Cheeks were
> > smooth, her Arms were slung"?  All of the interpretations we've
> > discussed so far seem absent from the OED.
> I think it's brilliantly ambiguous because we've got the "Cheeks" right
> before -- implying the body part for Arms -- and then the trumpet in the
> next line -- implying weaponry for Arms.
>
> ---Amy West
>
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