[Ads-l] "Mental", n.

Robin Hamilton robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM
Tue Jan 24 06:21:43 UTC 2017


>From _Green's Dictionary of Slang_:

____________________

MENTAL, n

2. intelligence; the mind.

1975 [US] E. Torres Carlito’s Way 53: If you ain’t got the mental, there’s
always a con to feed you your lines.
1989 [US] Freddie Foxxx ‘Forever’ [lyrics] Now my mental is active, so I’m
always thinkin.
1998 [US] Gang Starr ‘Robbin Hood Theor’ [lyrics] I floss my rhymes like
dentals, my mental’s presidential.
2008 Chamillionaire ‘Real Thing’ [lyrics] Rappers can’t keep up wit my mental.
2012 Kendrick Lamar ‘Sherane A.K.A Master Splinter’s Daughter’ [lyrics]
Seventeen, with nothing but pussy stuck on my mental.

_____________________

Probably not relevant, but in Glasgow Urban Speech, "mental" denotes a specific
*kind* of insanity -- a mental boy would be a berserkganger, someone liable to
go bananas at the drop of an accent.

Robin Hamilton

> 
>     On 24 January 2017 at 06:06 "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> wrote
> 

> 
> 
>     On Mon, 23 Jan 2017 11:17:29 Zone - 0500 Laurence Horn
> <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> quoted
> 
>     >"Matt’s been a grinder, getting his mental right”
>     >—Superbowl-bound Atlanta Falcons’ longtime receiver/kick returner Eric
>     >Weems, on Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan (quoted in today’s Monday
>     >Morning Quarterback by Peter King)
> 
>     A somewhat similar (probably unrelated) usage, from Dr. X (pseud for Alan
> Nourse MD) _Intern_ published 1965
>     Google Books snippet view only
> 
>     <quote>
>     I remember from medical school how the surgeons at Hopkins would bring
> some doddering old man out for a case presentation to the students and start
> off by pointing to him and saying, "Gentlemen, this Stomach was admitted to
> the hospital for the first time the night of November 5th..."
>     </quote>
> 
> 
>    https://books.google.com/books?id=C-JJ6OFUe9AC&dq=Intern%2Bdr+x&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22this+stomach+was+admitted%22
> 
>     - Jim Landau
> 
>     If anyone be interested, I have the paperback of _Intern_ and I can dig
> out the entire quote.
> 
> 
> 
>     _____________________________________________________________
>     Netscape. Just the Net You Need.
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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