[Ads-l] "jockstrap" < "jockey strap" when?

[Wilson Gray]

According to a quick Googling, "jock strap" appears in print from at least
1887, pace W:pedia.

Yet, "jockey strap" was the only form used in StL, whether by black
speakers in the 'hood or by white speakers at local prep schools, into the
1960's. Even "hang up the jock" was "hang up the jockey strap," when I
first heard it, ca. 1953.

Apparently, "the St. Louis 'hard A,' as in 'Arnament' and 'fArty'," as a
columnist in the StL Post-Dispatch has described it, isn't the only
peculiarity of the St. Louis speech island.

Youneverknow.

-- 
-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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