[Ads-l] obscene slang on TV

Mon Jun 1 17:28:31 UTC 2020

Well, there are books you read with one hand and then there are lexicons that have no author or editor.  A bit suspicious!  (AFAIK “Dirty Sanchez”, unlike “pearl necklace” and “oyster”, participates in single entendres only. Talk about filthy mouths...)

> On Jun 1, 2020, at 1:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Cultural/ literary update:
> 
> <goog_361279261>
> 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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> 
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