[Ads-l] dough boys 1823, 1826

[Jonathan Lighter]

I read it as a simple pun: he's "down in the mouth" (depressed,
discouraged, unhappy) like a biscuit because the biscuit in the mouth is
about to be swallowed down.

 JL

On Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 12:02 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> As for cutting out the "dough boys" and girls and horses for the Christmas
> stockings, it is different from the normal "dough boys" - because they are
> probably cutting out boys and girls in the cookie dough, not making "dough
> boy" bread pieces.  The giving of cookies was an early Dutch New York
> Christmas tradition.
>
>
> As for the down in the mouth sailor, it seems like a metaphor using a pun
> on the expression, "down in the mouth" - as "down in the mouth" as a
> "midshipman's dough boy".  It might be read as including a reference to how
> seasick young "midshipmen" (soft, educated, wannabe officers, just getting
> acclimated to shipboard life) get - he "comes up" as "down in the mouth"
> (that is to say, coming up instead of staying down) as a "midshipman's
> dough boy."  And the speaker is "down in the mouth" - depressed - about
> being put "clapt into limbo" - tied down or put into chains.
>
>
> ________________________________
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> Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2018 2:11 AM
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> Subject: dough boys 1823, 1826
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      dough boys 1823, 1826
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>
> a) "....the eldest, was busily engaged at the table, cutting out dough
> boys=
>  and girls, and birds and horses to fill up the long row of [Christmas?]
> st=
> ockings...." [like gingerbread men?]
>
> Dutchess Observer (Poughkeepsie, NY) Dec. 10, 1823, p. 4, col. 1. Readex
> Am=
> . Hist. News.
>
>
> b) "Well, howsomever, to shorten the matter: as I comes up, as down in the
> =
> mouth as a midshipman's dough boy, I was clapt into limbo...." [a marine
> be=
> ing seen by sailors as useless aboard ship as a humanoid cookie?]
>
> Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 19 (1826) Naval Sketch-Book p. 365b.
>
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=3Dnjp.
> 32101076889615;view=3D1up;seq=
> =3D399
>
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> Origin of Kibosh (Routledge)
>
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
> <http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/>
>
>
> <http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/>
>
>
> <http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/>
>
>
>
>
>
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