[Ads-l] ejaculatory "pop"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Mar 12, 2017, at 1:22 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Yet even at a time when "pop" often meant "pawn," few people seem to have
> subscribed to that interpretation, which is grammatically unlikely: "Pawn!
> goes the weasel"?
> 
> With no context to suggest otherwise, the monkey and weasel in the rhyme
> must be taken as actual animals, with the monkey in pursuit, rather than
> obscure or mismatched metaphors.
> 
> Maybe the weasel goes "pop!" because he/she/it is taking off with a sudden
> burst of speed. (See OED "pop," adj., 1. But OED, in the same article,
> deff. 2, otherwise declines to explicate the weasel's "pop.”)

Yes, I agree that OED’s sense 9 is implausible for describing the weasel-on-monkey activity alluded to in the verse, unless “pawn” is intended as an attenuated non-rhotic rendering of the highly suspect inter-species goings-on behind the convenient cover of the mulberry (or carpenter’s bench as the case may be).  

LH
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 11:29 AM, Robin Hamilton <
> robin.hamilton3 at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> 
>> ... and of course, "pop" in that context indicates pawning an item.  In
>> this
>> case, Charley Wag rather than Bob's your uncle, as in Henley's translation
>> of
>> Villon, in "Villon's Straight Tip To All Cross Coves":  'It's up-the-spout
>> and
>> Charley-Wag ...'
>> 
>> Robin
>> 
>> (The Wiki entry on Pop Goes the Weasel --
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Goes_the_Weasel -- is comprehensive, and
>> rather good -- someone on this list responsible for the anonymous
>> authorship of
>> the same?  Kudos to whoever.   R.)
>> 
>>> 
>>>    On 12 March 2017 at 14:50 Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>>    "All around the carpenter's bench" is how I learned it.
>>> 
>>>    JL
>>> 
>>>    On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 10:19 AM, Laurence Horn <
>> laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>>>    wrote:
>>> 
>>>> And it does add a whole new perspective on that hanky-panky between
>>>> monkey
>>>> and weasel in the neighborhood of that mulberry bush…
>>>> 
>>>> LH
>>>> 
>>>>> On Mar 12, 2017, at 8:48 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> There seems to be no way to know, but I'm skeptical. Maybe he's
>> just
>>>>> playing with the senses of "ask" and "explode." Given the
>> context and
>>>>> the
>>>>> vast "antedating," this explanation seems somewhat more
>> reasonable to
>>>>> me.
>>>>> 
>>>>> OED's initial cite, btw, is from HDAS files.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> JL
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sat, Mar 11, 2017 at 8:21 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net>
>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Well, Arnold -- Larry? Jon? -- what's your evaluation of the
>> 1722
>>>> "pop"?
>>>>>> Was the humorist and satirist Nathaniel Gardner innuendoing
>>>>>> [innuendo,
>>>> v.,
>>>>>> sense 3] ejaculation?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Joel
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> From: Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
>>>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2017 6:09 PM
>>>>>> Subject: [ADS-L] ejaculatory "pop"
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> citing ADS-L, on my blog:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> https://arnoldzwicky.org/2017/03/11/ejaculatory-pop/
>>>>>> 
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>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> "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
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>    --
>>>    "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
>>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "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

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