[Ads-l] "fist-stamping"

[Andy Bach]

Oops, tried to send images:

I thought the N.C. folklore version was apropos as I think the gesture
Lepore was referring to was the "fist to palm" Long has a number pictures
akin to:
https://images.app.goo.gl/hi8TaP2VfmNGWUrG9
https://images.app.goo.gl/Z7r8MCvYfJ8Lu6LV9

Robert Lafollette, Jr. (our beloved Progressive governor, 1900) has a
similar stamp, but he stamps his hand down on his palm, held horizontal.
https://images.app.goo.gl/fsKK9Sz9J
<https://images.app.goo.gl/fsKK9Sz9JbVwpaaE9>

It looks like Long stamps his palm held vertically:


On Thu, Mar 19, 2020 at 8:02 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, "brought his hard fist stamping down" is as clearly related to the
> Huey Long example as "shook his fist, stamping his foot on the ground" is
> not. An interesting but on retrospect unsurprising extension of a sense
> normally reserved for feet and inanimate objects, like rubber stamps.
>
> MAM
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2020, 2:39 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > In J. Lepore's "These Truths", (p461 Norton paperback)
> > "Wild-eyed, fist-stamping Louisiana senator Huey Long rallied his
> > followers by radio, too."
> >
> > I could find no instances of the hyphenated version, a few like "shook
> his
> > fist, stamping his foot on the ground" and one story in Harper's Magazine
> > vol 116, "Versus the Same" by Margaret Sutton Briscoe with:
> > "No good!" said my father. He spoke with is teeth set, and brought his
> > hard fist stamping down on the breakfast table, ...
> >
> > There's also the good luck/white horse "stamp" (North Carolina and
> > elsewhere folklore) where you put spit (licking one or two fingers right
> > hand fingers) onto the middle of palm of your left hand and stamp that
> > with.the base of your right fist when ever you see a white horse to bring
> > you good luck. (paraphrase - The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC
> folklore,
> > vol VII)
> >
> > So, maybe that's a fist-stamp, akin to the 3 count timing gesture for the
> > beginning of rock, paper, scissors.  Just never seen it before. I don't
> > doubt professor Lepore knows what she meant by that.
> >
> > --
> >
> > a
> >
> > Andy Bach,
> > afbach at gmail.com
> > 608 658-1890 cell
> > 608 261-5738 wk
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 

a

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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org