[Ads-l] Heard: _for days_, an intensifier

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

"Green’s Dictionary of Slang" has a pertinent entry. Here is the free
information without dated citations.
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ezbwopq#fz4zi3i

[Begin excerpt]
for days! [the orig. implication was of having sex continually, for
day after day] [1950s+]

1. (gay) an excl. implying shock or amazement.

2. (orig. US black, also days!) a general intensifier implying an
extreme, for a very long time, absolutely truthfully.
[End excerpt]

On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 3:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> The UD has it from 2005. I've been familiar with it since ca. 1965.
> Naturally, there's no telling when slang is going to appear in print. E.g.,
> while searching HDAS for the phrase - with Jon, youneverknow - I came
> across the GI nickname for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, "Fort
> Lost-In-The-Woods," dated only to 1974. Given that the post is reputed to
> have been carved out of the Mark Twain National Forest, it may well have
> acquired that nickname as far back as 1940 and it certainly had it by 1950,
> when the "big boys" of my childhood were reaching draft age. And, when the
> slang is a phrase non-distinct from the same phrase in the standard
> language, dating is a real problem for an amateur like me.
>
> So, I picked a common turn of phrase in which _for days_ is used, Googled
> that in the 20th C., and got one hit:
>
> Richie Rich – Niggaz Done Changed | Lyrics | Genius Lyrics
> genius.com › R › Richie Rich
> Jan 1, 1996 - "In the same way, God bless my brain, 'cause game pays.
> Gettin' cash and _ass for days_. Now niggas [sic] done changed [Hook:
> Richie Rich & 2Pac] The game is to be sold, not told. Still heavy in this
> game. Niggas [sic] done changed, it ain't the same."
>
> Naturally, that led me to:
>
> Flash on the Hustler - Page 39
> https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0970323735
> Red Jordan Arobateau - 1975
> "It was all in my best interests you understand... this.. tri-billionaire
> -- with his _money for days_, wanted to educate me to the element of work.
> He felt responsible."
>
> My impression is that it takes about ten years for pre-rap/hip-hop slang to
> become available in print. So, there may not be any examples earlier than
> this 1975 cite.
>
> _For days_ can be used alone, since it's merely an intensifier, with no
> inherent meaning of its own, pace the UD:
>
> A. Jon Lighter is interested in slang?
> B. For days!
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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