[Ads-l] _hit in the face with the ugly stick_

[Baker, John]

"Hit with the ugly stick" (no reference to "face") rings a bell, although I can't place it.  Newspapers.com has "whupped with an ugly stick" in three examples from 1959, all in Texas newspapers.  One of these is "whupped wif a ugly stick," which probably is an imitation of African-American speech, but the other two are standard English except for "whupped."


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jim Parish
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2016 5:24 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: _hit in the face with the ugly stick_

Wilson Gray wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 5:05 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>
>> the "ugly stick", which did physical damage and also decreased the
>> Charisma of the victim.
>
> Specifically when the victim was "hit in the face with the ugly stick"?
>
I think the phrase which inspired me was something like "bein' whupped 
with the ugly stick".

Jim Parish

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