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

[Laurence Horn]

Do we get an opposing view from Princess Summerfall Winterspring?

(I remember Buffalo Bob well; the first time I came across references to Buffalo Bill Cody, I thought he’d ripped off the name.)

LH

> On Sep 29, 2017, at 1:02 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> 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
>> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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