[Ads-l] giving Aretha Franklin her propers

[Ben Zimmer]

Of potential interest, my latest piece for The Atlantic, on Aretha
Franklin's use of "propers" in "Respect" (which later gave rise to "props")
-- soon to be properly recognized by the OED.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/aretha-franklin-finally-gets-her-props/568555/

Matt Kohl previously wrote about this for the Oxford Dictionaries blog:

https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/03/25/r-e-s-p-e-c-t-find-out-what-it-means-to-me/

The other Aretha-ism discussed by Matt, "TCB" = "take care of business,"
can now be found several years before "Respect" in the newspaper databases.
Here it is in a syndicated column by Stan Delaplane ("Fans Make Up Jazz
Language, Then the Musicians Learn It"), quoting jazz trumpeter Art Farmer:

---
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/23202793/tcb/
Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, Feb. 27, 1961, p. 5A, col. 2
"We just try to TCB."
"What is that, Mr. Farmer?"
"Take care of business," he said. "You know. Be conscientious."
---

--bgz

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