[Ads-l] whanger

[Jonathan Lighter]

Not in OED except in the (derivative?) phallic sense:

1779 Ethan Allen _Narrative of the Captivity of Col. Ethan Allen_ (Boston:
Draper & Folsom) 11: The combatants were to discharge each a pocket pistol,
and then to fall on with their iron-hilted muckle whangers.

Maybe a misprint for "hangers," but I'd prefer to regard it as a variant.
(It is repeated in reprints at any rate.)

And, please, no ribald riffs on "hangers," either.

"Muckle" is surprising in an American-born writer.

JL

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

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