[Ads-l] Antedating of G-string

[Jonathan Lighter]

Hi, George,

I'm fascinated by the "long tom" cite, mainly because there was once a
subgenre of sea songs which elaborated on the precise situation posited: a
sexual encounter euphemistically described as a sea battle. Such songs were
produced from the seventeenth till the early twentieth century - in other
words, as long as sailing ships ruled the waves.

Could you send me the entire passage?

JL

On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 10:08 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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