[Ads-l] Antedating of G-string

[Dave Hause]

After many years reading Army Times and being amazed at the ignorance of 
writers supposedly specializing in army topics, I would suggest the people 
mixing up naval terminology were public affairs or other admin types.  Rank 
speculation about the "peaceable" nature of the Sioux is that their people 
selected more moderate-seeming representatives to visit the enemy.
Dave Hause
-----Original Message----- 
From: James A. Landau
Sent: Monday, April 4, 2016 2:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Antedating of G-string

On Friday, April 1, 2016 10:42 AM John Baker wrote:

>The OED and Merriam-Webster have G-string, a breech-cloth, from 1878,
>although I think it's been taken back at least to 1877 on ADS-L.  Here's
>an example from 1875.  Notably, it uses the spelling "G-string," although
>the earliest examples previously found have "geestring" or "gee-string."
>This is from the (Washington, D.C.) National Republican, May 21, 1875
>(Newspapers.com).
>
>"Quite a number of the Sioux Indians visited the navy yard yesterday,
>and spent an hour among the big guns.  They appear more peaceable and
>child-like now.  If they could only be made to carry a battery or two of 
>those
>fifteen-inch Long Toms in their G-string pouches, as silent reminders of
>our prowess, it might have a salutary effect on them."

In the War of 1812 the US Navy had three types of cannons: carronade (short 
barrel), columbiad (intermediate-length barrel) and "Long Tom" (long, 
cylindrical barrel).  All three types were specified by the weight of the 
spherical cannonball they could fire: "eighteen-pounder", "twenty-four 
pounder", etc.

By the Civil War the US Navy had a much wider variety of cannons.  Some were 
referred to by the weight of the cannonball, as before, and some by the 
diameter of the barrel, e.g. "fifteen-inch".  Now the Navy used only one 
variety of fifteen-inch gun, and that was called the "Dahlgren" (after its 
designer) or the "soda-water bottle" after its shape, which was NOT 
cylindrical.  As far as I know, the 15-inch and its little brother the 
11-inch Dahlgren were never called "long Toms".

Far from clarifying the issue, this only makes it more complicated.  Why 
were people at the Navy Yard mixing up naval terminology?  (And why did the 
Sioux appear "peaceable" only one year before Custer's Last Stand?)

The only explanation that makes sense to me is that someone was choosing to 
say that the Sioux had 15-inch penes, and used the term "Long Tom" because 
that was the only phallic-looking cannon.

If "G-string" were the original form, than an obvious guess would be that 
the breechcloth is compared to the G string of a violin, that being the 
thickest (and therefore lowest in pitch, generally G below Middle C) string 
on a violin.  However the spellings "geestring" or "gee-string" make that 
guess seem less obvious.  The only other guess I have is that "gee" comes 
from the practice of teamsters yelling "gee" or "haw" to the teams to steer 
them.  "Gee" is the command to turn away from the driver (in the US and 
Canada, to the right).

- Jim Landau

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org