[Ads-l] _long finger_ =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9Cmiddle_?=finger"

[Jim Parish]

Thanks, Wilson!


On 9/29/2017 12:57 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>> "Little one, lean one, long one, lickpot, thumbo"
> Check dis out:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYPmuP3Jf38
>
> On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 10:00 PM Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>
>> When I was young, I heard a song with the chorus
>>
>> "Little one, lean one, long one, lickpot, thumbo".
>>
>> (For the longest time, I thought the singer was Tennessee Ernie Ford,
>> but I can't find it in his discography.)
>>
>> Jim Parish
>>
>>
>> On 9/28/2017 8:10 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>> While browsing around in DARE, I came across the above. Not only is this
>>> the usual term for the middle finger that I used during my East Texas
>>> childhood, but it also occurs in a song that I once heard when I was
>> about
>>> three years old. The song is entitled _Thumbkin_ et sim. Giving research
>> a
>>> lick and a promise, I found that the song goes back, in variants, to at
>>> least 1849.
>>>
>>> Thumbkin says he’ll dance
>>> Thumbkin says he’ll sing
>>> Dance and sing, ye merry little men
>>> Thumbkin says he’ll dance and sing
>>>
>>> Fore finger says he’ll dance
>>> Etc.
>>>
>>> _Long finger_ says he’ll dance
>>> Etc.
>>>
>>> Ring finger says he’ll dance
>>> Etc.
>>>
>>> Short finger says he’ll dance
>>> Etc.
>>>
>>> All fingers say they’ll dance
>>> Etc.
>>>
>>> goo.gl/jonkH7
>>>
>>> Speaking of recalling stuff from childhood, I once met a (white)
>>> fellow-Texan who, as toddler, had had a Russian nursemaid. She used to
>> sing
>>> him to sleep with a Russian lullaby. He remembered that lullaby so well
>>> that, over a quarter-century later, he was able to sing it, pronouncing
>> the
>>> Russian so well that I could easily understand the words of the song and
>>> interpret them for him, his own knowledge of Russian being non-existent.
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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