[Ads-l] rude: noisy? frolicksome?

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my experience, "rude" = 'bawdy; obscene' is known to older British
speakers as well.

I must have encountered it in the '60s, with no suggestion that it was a
novelty. I associate it with the sometimes hilariously "rude" rugby song
repertoire.

"Outway rude" may have been the collocation I met with.

JL

On Sun, Sep 24, 2017 at 9:47 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Sep 24, 2017 at 6:22 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>
> > Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> >> The senses of “rude” as applied to human behavior are, I think, all
> >>>
> >> negative.
> >>
> >> Except in BE slang , of course, wherein, like “hard,” It’s a synonym of
> >> “bad.” “Rude”and “hard”In the sense of “bad” go so far back that I don’t
> >> know f’ sho’ where I first heard them. The time-frame is between 1945
> and
> >> 1950, though.
> >>
> >
> > What does it mean in the title of Desmond Dekker's "Rude Boy Train"? (I
> > love the sound of his voice, but I very rarely understand what he's
> saying.)
>
>
> OED3 (Mar. 2011 update), under "rude":
>
> _rude boy_  n.  (a) (orig. and chiefly Jamaican) any of a class of
> unemployed black youths inhabiting the poorer areas of Jamaica and
> typically seen as indolent and apt to commit petty crimes; a comparable
> youth in another society;  (b) (with reference to such youths as a frequent
> subject of ska lyrics) a member of the subculture associated with ska, esp.
> in Britain.
>
> 1967   _Caribbean Q._ Sept. 39   Rude bwoy is that person, native, who is
> totally disenchanted with the ruling system; who generally is descended
> from the ‘African’ elements in the lower class... Rude bwoys are largely
> centred in those urban areas that suffer from chronic depression.
> [etc.]
>
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>



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