[Ads-l] Heard on Corrupt Crimes: _to put on_ "to pretend, to fake it"

[Baker, John]

Is this a regional term?  It’s certainly familiar to me as a white Kentuckian, but I was unaware of any limitation in its use (not that that proves anything).  The OED has it from 1625.

If it is a term used primarily by African-Americans and Southern whites, it wouldn’t be the first time.  I’m still getting over my surprise at hearing the term “triflin’,” familiar to me only from my parents’ use, in a song by Destiny’s Child.


John Baker



From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Wilson Gray
Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 7:40 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Heard on Corrupt Crimes: _to put on_ "to pretend, to fake it"

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"If he [J. T. Lundy] was _putting on_ [that he was heart-broken over the
injury to his horse, Alydar], then he was doing a great job of it!"
- Tom Dixon
Insurance-adjuster
Lexington, Kentucky

As hard as it may be to believe, I have misplaced the relevant volume of
DARE. So, I suppose that this intransitive _put on_ is cited in DARE, but I
don't know that it is. IAC, I've been familiar with it since I learned to
talk - e.g. a child pretending to be sick or hurt in order to get the
attention of its parents is said to be "putting on":

That child is just putting on. Don't pay it no mind.

The use of the term by a white Kentuckian, IAC, is an indication that its
use is not peculiar to black East Texans.

AFAIK, this intransitive _put on_ has no connection with the transitive
hippie-ism, _put someone on_. I first heard that from a fellow-GI from
Darien, Connecticut, back in 1959. Unfortunately, he's had a stroke. It
would be interesting to know whether he learned that in Darien or at
Stanford, out of which he had dropped before joining the Army.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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