[Ads-l] "Talk like a man with a paper ass"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I found a post-WWII newspaper ex. of "talk like a man with a paper hat."
Because it's late, and very possibly a euphemism, it isn't worth much.

But it makes me wonder. A "man with a paper hat" in the late 19th century
might be one of those nuts who thought they were Napoleon.

At least that's my SWAG.

JL

On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 4:54 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> When I was in the War, 1959-1962, the expression was,
>
> "... sound/talk like a man with a paper _asshole_."
>
> Hadn't heard it before. Haven't heard it since. I found the use of the
> phrase to be so vague that I was never able to understand what it was
> supposed to mean. (I apologize for commenting like a man with a paper
> asshole.)
>
> On Sat, Sep 26, 2020 at 1:54 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > 'To talk nonsense.'  Common in WW2.
> >
> > These seem to be the earliest traces:
> >
> > 1895 *St. Louis-Post Dispatch* of (Nov. 15)  3: “Naw, I weren’t born in
> dis
> > here place….You talk like a man wid a paper nose.”
> >
> > 1906 P*rovidence Evening Bulletin (*March 23) 3:“You talk like a man
> with a
> > paper knee.”
> >
> > Not that these make any more sense.  Nor does the common form
> "...asshole."
> >
> >
> > JL
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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