[Ads-l] Antedating of G-string

[Jonathan Lighter]

See HDAS for "long tom."

I too am rather mystified by the G-string cite, but isn't it possible that
"G-string pouches" refers to a different kind of "pouch"?  One supported,
for example, over the shoulder or on the belt by a "G-string" (currently
undefined)?

JL

On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 1:09 AM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:

> 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
>
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