[Ads-l] caribou and reindeer (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

> "nut up"

"Double up in laughter"in StL. I heard that the original form was "knot
up," but the extreme, a-la-Sammy Davis, Jr. physicality motivated a
reanalysis of _knot_ as "nut," because the loud laughter, doubling over,
thigh-slapping, etc. seemed nuts to some observers.

Probably no more correct than any other folk-etymology. The preferred term
is not _nuts_, but _crazy_, as in the title of Richard Pryor's pre-PC
album, That Nigger's Crazy. Pryor opens the album with a discussion of
cunnilingus, a topic so dissolute and depraved that it stuns his audience
into nervous silence, except for one man who, unable to control his shock
and outrageoutrage, shouts out, "That nigger *crazy*!!!", thereby providing
the album with its title.




'

On Thu, Mar 14, 2019 at 5:22 PM MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY
FUTURES COMMAND (USA) <0000099bab68be9a-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu>
wrote:

> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> You mention "man up" as a synonym for "grow a pair".  FWIW, I've also
> heard "cowboy up" and "nut up" as equivalent.
>
> >
> > on my blog, an Alaskan antler cartoon (passed on by Chris Waigl), with
> reflections on "grow a pair", antlers, caribou and reindeer, the
> > semantics of everyday terms, and copyright woes:
> >
> > 3/14/19: Caribou with a pair:
> >
> > https://arnoldzwicky.org/2019/03/14/caribou-with-a-pair/
> >
> > readers on this list might be interested in the "caribou" vs. "reindeer"
> section
> >
> > arnold
> >
> >
>
> CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-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

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