[Ads-l] _on the bone_ in the UD

[Jonathan Lighter]

My guess is that, today, "boning up on Shakespeare" would mostly suggest an
inordinate appreciation for the works of the Bard.


JL

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 10:49 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> Lots of nice cites for non-taboo-avoidable _bone_, v. in HDAS, though,
> depending on the syntactic frame. I don’t think “bone up on/for X”, where X
> is physics, final exam, LSAT, etc., would raise eyebrows, although I should
> probably check that claim with current undergraduates.  Other cites, e.g.
> “He boned like a Turk” (Abe, 1903), might be interpreted differently.  And
> I doubt anyone here at Yale could say, as Dink Stover (or one of his
> classmates) did in 1911, “Get out, Dopey, we’re boning”, or at least not
> with the same intended meaning.
>
> LH
>
> > On Mar 7, 2018, at 10:37 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Another retro idiom you don't want to use is "to bone up."  That also
> > became filthy ca1970, IIRC.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” also has the word in the troll poem (“The Fox
> Went
> >> out on a Stormy Night”). BB
> >>
> >>> On 7 Mar 2018, at 07:22, MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM
> >> AMRDEC (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Presumably these were all written with the "clean" meaning in mind, but
> >> you never know . . . .
> >>>
> >>> http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/136/boner_6.gif
> >>> http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/136/boner_2.gif
> >>> https://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/boner-10.jpg
> >>> http://www.superdickery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/batman01.jpg
> >>> http://www.superdickery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/batman03.jpg
> >>> http://www.therobotspajamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/
> >> 03/super-boners-by-superman.jpg
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> ----
> >>>>
> >>>>> Go figure.
> >>>>
> >>>> Indeed. And, once you become accustomed to the "dirty" interpretation,
> >> you find yourself wondering how the heck there was ever a
> >>>> "clean" reading.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 3:24 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> >> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Oddly, that was roughly my experience too.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> In the '80s or '90s, when I innocently used the phrase "pulled a
> boner"
> >>>>> before a class of freshmen, you can imagine the reaction. The point
> >>>>> is, none of them had ever heard the innocent interpretation.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Go figure.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> JL
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 2:18 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> "Having an erect penis; having a boner; having a hard on; being on
> >> hard"
> >>>>>> November 23, 2006
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> From time to time, I look to see whether some random slang that I
> >>>>>> know
> >>>>> has
> >>>>>> been documented somewhere or other. In this case, I have found the
> >>>>> _exact_
> >>>>>> definition in, of all places, the Urban Dictionary. And note that
> >>>>>> "hard
> >>>>> on"
> >>>>>> is spelled out as two words and that the phrase, "on hard," also
> >> occurs.
> >>>>>> It's "like a letter from home," to coin a phrase.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I became familiar with "on the bone" ca. 1947, "hard on" and "on
> hard"
> >>>>> ca.
> >>>>>> 1943, though the latter two phrases probably can be dated to the
> >>>>> Creation.
> >>>>>> Oddly, I never heard "boner" - except in the meaning, "egregious
> >>>>>> error" - till 1969.
> >>>>>> --
> >>>>>> -Wilson
> >>>>>> -----
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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