[Ads-l] obscene slang on TV

Mon Jun 1 17:21:07 UTC 2020

Cultural/ literary update:

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https://tinyurl.com/y9mmgytt   <https://tinyurl.com/y9mmgytt>

JL

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 12:09 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Jun 1, 2020, at 12:03 PM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 01, 2020 at 10:53:46AM -0500, Andy Bach wrote:
> >>> I do know of a 1972 example of _pearl_ 'drop of semen'.
> >
> > (Updating myself here) I missed the 1934 example in Green's Dictionary
> of Slang, where it appears connected with _pearl tie-pin_--an interesting
> earlier example of a jewelry metaphor.
> >
> >> You don't think William Lazenby's The Pearl, 1870s porn magazine
> >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_(magazine)
> >>
> >> was related?   Lazenby did go on to publish the Oyster, so he had
> >> something sexual in mind -
> >>
> https://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1870s/1879-1880_the_pearl_journal/
> >>
> >> AN APOLOGY FOR OUR TITLE.
> >
> > It's not clear from this that there's a sexual meaning in mind.
> >
> > There is evidence for _pearl_ 'female genitalia' from the 1920s. But
> _oyster_ is different; that is very heavily attested from c.1600 onwards.
> So for that, we don't have to make any suppositions.
> >
> > Jesse Sheidlower
>
> And unlike “pearl”, for obvious alphabetical reasons, we can find a
> relevant entry for “oyster” in HDAS:
> 1. The vagina or vulva.—usu. considered vulgar. Cf. bearded clam.
>
> With cites back to 1680 or so.  Farmer & Henley has “oyster” with this
> meaning, as the HDAS entry notes, but I my F&H is locked away in my office
> for the duration so I can’t check it for “pearl”.
>
> LH
>
> >
> >> Having decided to bring out a Journal, the Editor racks his brains for
> >> a suitable name with which to christen his periodical. Friends are
> >> generally useless in an emergency of this kind; they suggest all kinds
> >> of impossible names; the following were some of the titles proposed in
> >> this instance: "Facts and Fancies," "The Cremorne," "The All Round,"
> >> "The Monthly Courses," "The Devil's Own," and "Dugdale's Ghost"; the
> >> two first had certainly great attractions to our mind, but at last our
> >> own ideas have hit upon the modest little "Pearl," as more suitable,
> >> especially in the hope that when it comes under the snouts of the
> >> moral and hypocritical swine of the world, they may not trample it
> >> underfoot, and feel disposed to rend the publisher, but that a few
> >> will become subscribers on the quiet. To such better disposed
> >> piggywiggys, I would say, for encouragement, that they have only to
> >> keep up appearances by regularly attending church, giving to
> >> charities, and always appearing deeply interested in moral
> >> philanthropy, to ensure a respectable and highly moral character, and
> >> that if they only are clever enough never to be found out, they may,
> >> sub rosa, study and enjoy the philosophy of life till the end of their
> >> days, and earn a glorious and saintly epitaph on their tombstone, when
> >> at last the Devil pegs them out.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 10:43 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> On Jun 1, 2020, at 6:44 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Link to the episode/time? There's a bunch of stuff out there, and
> these are long episodes.
> >>>>
> >>>> The earliest example of "pearl necklace" in the sexual sense is 1984
> (in OED); Green's Dictionary of Slang has 1993. (I do know of a 1972
> example of _pearl_ 'drop of semen'.) So this would be a really nice
> antedating, if real. Maybe it got by the censors because no one knew what
> it meant, and it could plausibly be its standard meaning.
> >>>>
> >>>> Jesse Sheidlower
> >>>
> >>> That was my guess when I read Bill’s post—it would be like some of the
> purported early occurrences of “gay” in the 1930s that would have been
> understood by those who understood it and overlooked by the others
> (including the censors), a kind of no-harm no-foul dog whistle. Or perhaps
> a better example is the “gunsel” story we’ve discussed.  Michael Quinion
> gives a nice synopsis, including the featured role of Dashiell Hammett, at
> http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-gun1.htm.  The difference
> is that unlike the chronology of “pearl necklace” or “gay” case, the loaded
> meaning of “gunsel” didn't survive the polysemy.
> >>>
> >>> LH
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Jun 01, 2020 at 04:40:07AM +0000, Bill Mullins wrote:
> >>>>> I just watched the pilot episode of Police Woman on youtube
> (actually an episode of Police Story).  In it, Angie Dickenson's first
> undercover assignment is as a hooker, and before she goes in, Charles
> Dierkop asks her if she knows what a "pearl necklace" is.  I'm surprised
> that got by the censors in 1974.
> >>>>>
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> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> a
> >>
> >> Andy Bach,
> >> afbach at gmail.com
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> >> 608 261-5738 wk
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