[Ads-l] Possible antedate to "pneumatic"

[Ben Yagoda]

The relevant definition of “pneumatic” is “humorous. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a woman with a well-rounded figure, esp. a large bosom; (of a woman) having a well-rounded figure, esp. large-bosomed.”

The first citation is T.S. Eliot (!) in the 1919 poem “Whispers of Immortality”: "Grishkin is nice... Uncorseted, her friendly bust Gives promise of pneumatic bliss." A more recent one is from The Sunday Times  in 1994: “Making her film debut in 1981 as a pneumatic Texan temp in the office comedy Nine To Five, Dolly Parton was an instant success.”

But a character in a 1905 O. Henry story, “The Girl and the Graft,” presents a long slangy list of feminine wiles: "signed letters, false hair, sympathy, the kangaroo walk, cowhide whips, ability to cook, sentimental juries, conversational powers, silk underskirts, ancestry, rouge, anonymous letters, violet sachet powders, witnesses, revolvers, pneumatic forms, carbolic acid, moonlight, cold cream and the evening newspapers.”

By the way, the kangaroo walk was a locomotion fad that involved, as one source put it, a “hoppy, springy stride and a swinging relaxation of the arms.” It inspired a 1902 song called “The Girl with the Kangaroo Walk.”

Ben

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