[Ads-l] obscene slang on TV

Andy Bach afbach at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jun 1 18:26:37 UTC 2020


> participates in single entendres only. Talk about filthy mouths...
Or, as Amazon would have it, "mouthes"
Many of us have filthy mouthes, but we are sure you've never said or
even heard some of the horrible cuss words found inside this book.

On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 12:33 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> 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.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> [
> >> https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-animated-no-repeat-v1.gif
> >> ]<
> >> https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=icon>
> >>  Virus-free. www.avast.com<
> >> https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail&utm_term=link
> >>>
> >>>>>>>
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> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>>
> >>>> a
> >>>>
> >>>> Andy Bach,
> >>>> afbach at gmail.com
> >>>> 608 658-1890 cell
> >>>> 608 261-5738 wk
> >>>>
> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
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>
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-- 

a

Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

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