"roger", noun and verb

[Laurence Horn]

Point taken, Joel.  I overlooked that right bracket after the 1679 quote.  Then again Sir Roger pressing his arguments on Mrs Bride strikes me as too good to omit. For those without an OED handy, the earlier bracketed quote--equally, shall we say, vivid--is

[1644   Circuit Court of Northampton, Virginia in B. Cusack Everyday Eng. (1998) 143   Thou art Buggering the Calfe... There hangs out yor Rogerry still ffor his yarde hang'd then out of his Breeches.


There do seem to be an awful lot of male names that share the secondary reference of "Roger", but most of the others are monosyllabic.

LH

On Apr 27, 2014, at 8:17 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Larry, why do you omit the [1644] quotation for the noun?  (You start
> with the 1679, which is also bracketed -- a single bracket pair encloses both.)
>
> Assuming you have good reason, that would eliminate one objection (of
> perhaps only a few) to my ... hypothesis that Rogers of the
> Rogerenes* could have brought us the noun and verb.  (John Rogers
> wasn't born until 1648.)   :-)
>
> * Not to be confused with Rogers of the Rangers.
>
> Joel
>
> At 4/27/2014 03:11 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> On Apr 27, 2014, at 1:52 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:
>>
>> > So, hey! Is this were "to roger" comes from?
>> > DAD
>>
>> Apparently the verb derives neither from the Rogeri/enes nor the
>> "rogers" who were "itinerant beggar[s] pretending to be poor
>> scholar[s] from Oxford or Cambridge" but from the (flaming) roger
>> itself, aka the nimble-wimble...
>>
>> 4. coarse slang. The penis. Cf. roger v.1   Now rare.
>>
>> 1679   T. Kirk Mod. Acct. Scotl. 9   And perhaps Sir Roger follows
>> Mrs Bride to her Apartment,..where he uses..pungent and pressing Arguments.]
>> 1689   R. Gray in P. U. Bonomi Lord Cornbury Scandal (1998) v.
>> 103   Lets pray for the good of our State and his Soul That He'd put
>> his Roger into the Right Hold.
>> 1694   P. A. Motteux et al. tr. Rabelais Wks. I. i. xi. 44   And
>> some of the other Women would give these Names, My Roger, my
>> Cockatoo, my Nimble-wimble, Bush-beater, Claw-buttock..my lusty Live Saucage.
>> ...
>> c1863   'Philo Cunnus' Festival of Passions ii. 25   With my right
>> hand, I grasped my flaming Roger.
>>
>> "pungent and pressing arguments" indeed, but occasionally misdirected
>>
>> LH
>>
>> >
>> > Subject: Fun and games among the Quakers: "Rogerene", 1768; interdates OED
>> > (2010) 1754--1784
>> >
>> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> > Subject:      Fun and games among the Quakers: "Rogerene", 1768; interdates
>> > OED
>> >              (2010) 1754--1784
>> >
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > ---
>> >
>> > You must have read of the vast variety of religions and different
>> > persuasions in practice in this country. I heard the other day of a
>> > new sect, who call themselves Rogerines, [sic] from their principal,
>> > whose name is Roger. They run about stark naked, men and women, and
>> > profess to live in the state of primitive innocence. In this country
>> > they go into churches and other religious meetings, where they dance
>> > about in an extraordinary manner, Billy to Betty, and cry out
>> > constantly, "Who can do as we do, and yet be pure and undefiled?"
>> > This is a fact; but pray do not read it to any women.
>> >
>> > 1768 Alexander Mackraby, Letter to Sir Philip Francis, 20 January,
>> > Bristol [Pennsylvania].  In Pennsylvania Magazine of History and
>> > Biography 11 (1887), 278.  GBooks.
>> >
>> > The article is titled "Philadelphia Society [sic!] before the
>> > Revolution".  Bristol, Penn., is just across the Delaware River from
>> > New Jersey, about 22 miles from Philadelphia.  Mackraby wrote "I am
>> > at an inn, where I put up on my return from a visit to Mr. Franklyn,
>> > governor of the province of Jersey, to whom I was introduced yesterday".
>> >
>> > "Rogerene" interdates OED3  1754--1784.
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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