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

[Barretts Mail]

FWIW, it’s not part of my dialect and I wouldn’t have understood it without adequate context. BB

> On 28 Mar 2018, at 09:48, Baker, John <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
> 
> 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 <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 <mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Heard on Corrupt Crimes: _to put on_ "to pretend, to fake it"
> 
> External Email - Think Before You Click
> 
> 
> "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.


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