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

[Jonathan Lighter]

"To the bone":  HDAS 1932.

JL

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 5:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Phrases: continental to the bone, silked to the bone,
> laid to
>               the natural bone
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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