[Ads-l] Possible antedate to "pneumatic"

[Andy Bach]

It was an adjective of some promise in "Brave New World" - Spark notes
over-eggs it a tad:
pneumatic

The word *pneumatic *is used with remarkable frequency to describe two
things: Lenina’s body and chairs. *Pneumatic *is an adjective that usually
means that something has air pockets or works by means of compressed air.
In the case of the chairs (in the feely theater and in Mond’s office), it
probably means that the chairs’ cushions are inflated with air. In Lenina’s
case, the word is used by both Henry Foster and Benito Hoover to describe
what she’s like to have sex with. She herself remarks that her lovers
usually find her “pneumatic,” patting her legs as she does so. In reference
to Lenina it means well-rounded, balloon-like, or bouncy, in reference to
her flesh, and in particular her bosom. Huxley is not the only writer to
use the word *pneumatic *in this sense, although it is an unusual usage.
The use of this odd word to describe the physical characteristics of both a
woman and a piece of furniture underscores the novel’s theme that human
sexuality has been degraded to the level of a commodity.


I thought it was used to refer to more than one woman; I always assumed it
had a more direct relation to the pump than the air that comes out of a
pump.

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 9:29 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Cowhide whips??  O. Henry???
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 6:05 PM Ben Yagoda <byagoda at udel.edu> wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> > benyagoda.com
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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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Andy Bach,
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