[Ads-l] Phrases: continental to the bone, silked to the bone, laid to the natural bone

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 20 21:04:16 UTC 2015


On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 7:30 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> What is more interesting about the three terms noted above is the
> obvious source of the reference, that is, the well-dressed,
> well-groomed, silked to the bone ( 'dressed in silk from your
> underwear outward' ) appearance of the pimp.
>

FWIW, that's not "obvious" to me. Does anyone *really* believe that the
epitome of sartorial splendor for the well-dressed, well-groomed, silked to
the bone, black, American male is "the pimp"?! If you do believe that, then
you'd better check yourself.

Needless to say, these date from the '40's and '50's in speech, though they
were apparently unknown to Cab Calloway, who has no entry at all for _laid_.

Garson, will you also be making similar lists for _break_ and _jump_?

"the report may have been revised to yield a dissertation."

I have, somewhere, a copy of the thesis. Didn't it become the legendary
"Runnin' Down Some Lines"?

"laid to the bone phr.1 [1960s-70s] (US Black) drunk, [ext. of LAID adj.1]"

Does this meaning, "drunk," occur anywhere other than in lexicons?


It's a beautiful first day of spring, here in NE PA. With any luck, we'll
get a good four inches of snow! :-(

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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