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

[Mark Mandel]

For what it may be worth, a negative datapoint: growing up in NYC (white,
with little African American contact) in the 50s and 60s, AFAIK I never
heard this usage either, and hadn't till now.

Mark, always interested


On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 7:28 AM, Margaret Lee <0000006730deb3bf-dmarc-reques
t at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

>  I grew up in central Virginia hearing my African American elders say that
> someone was "just puttin' on."
> --Margaret Lee
>
>     On ‎Thursday‎, ‎March‎ ‎29‎, ‎2018‎ ‎12‎:‎24‎:‎25‎ ‎AM‎ ‎EDT, Wilson
> Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
>  > Is this a regional term?
>
> Until I heard it on TV, I had no evidence at all that _to put on_, in the
> relevant sense, was used anywhere except in the colored part of town,
> which, likewise, proves nothing. I never heard a natural use - i.e. outside
> of "dis-de-way-dey-say-we-tawk" joking around - of _gwine_ before ca. 1977,
> even though I'd known from the beginning of time that it was a
> (stereo)typical feature of "negro dialect." Then, one evening, I was
> listening to an interview with bluesman Hubert Sumlin, a native of
> Mississippi who grew up in Arkansas, on WBUR/NPR and I *clearly* heard him
> say, "'Ey was gwine broke!" I was shocked. Shocked!
>
> Youneverknow.
>
> On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 12:48 PM, 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.
>
> ------------


> > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> > Of Wilson Gray
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 7:40 PM
> >
> > "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.
> >
> > -Wilson
>

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