[Ads-l] Miscellany

[Jonathan Lighter]

Earliest "piece of ass"? Dunno either.  Unidiomatic by today's standards,
but poss. close enough for government work, esp. in the House:

ca1795_The Festival of Anacreon_ (ed. 7) [London: G. Peacock]10: Snip
seiz'd an artless lass, Sirs,/ And cabbag'd her virginity, the best piece
of her ----, Sirs.

JL

On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 11:03 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Earliest ex. of "wimpy"?   Dunno:
>
> 1943 Keith Ayling _Semper Fidelis_   (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin) 155: A
> certain marine, Private Wendling -- "Wimpy Wendling," as Hurlbut dubbed
> him. "Wimpy" was only five feet, six inches and weighed about a hundred and
> forty. "He looks about as pugnacious as Caspar Milquetoast and has never
> had a fistfight in all his twenty years," wrote Hurlbut. In civilian life,
> Wimpy was employed by a greeting-card company.
>
> If this is a simple application of the J. Wellington Wimpy name, it's odd
> that there's no reference to hamburgers, obesity, cadging, or even a funny
> mustache.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 7:44 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> He's _your_ fresh an' brud!
>>
>> Oh!  "flesh and blood"!  I get it!
>>
>> GAT
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 5:35 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > > fresh an' brud
>> >
>> > That is a really *old-fashioned* style of pronunciation! Not sure that
>> I've
>> > ever heard it, but I usually see it in representations of slave-speech.
>> >
>> > On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 1:26 PM Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > Some of you may know that long before the Internet I used to write
>> notes
>> > on
>> > > cards.  Some of these were on matters of minor linguistic interest.
>> (Now
>> > I
>> > > post things immediately to the list.)
>> > >
>> > > I just found a bunch of these at the bottom of an old crate and will
>> post
>> > > some here.
>> > >
>> > > For a start:
>> > > I
>> > > 1902 W. W. Naughton KIngs of the Queensberry Realm_ (Chicago:
>> > Continental)
>> > > 41: The old Donnybrook formula, "Wherever you see a head, hit it."
>> > >
>> > > II
>> > > 1996 Black woman, age ca.27 on _Rolanda_ (syn. TV series) (taped in
>> NYC):
>> > > He's _your_ fresh an' brud!  [Clearly enunciated].
>> > >
>> > > III
>> > > OK, not linguistic:
>> > >
>> > > 1907 _World To-Day_ (Jan. 21): It has been shown beyond reasonable
>> doubt
>> > > that all attempts at professionalizing football are likely to fail.
>> For
>> > one
>> > > thing, the game is too dangerous for men to take up as a livelihood.
>> > >
>> > > (And that's just for one thing!)
>> > >
>> > > JL
>> > >
>> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > > The American Dialect Society -
>> >
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=nXvIlGPaA0afSqTVKLEjLr-TWuNju_R9QmeTon-yWss&s=lHBJ0WE2_Msjg_BXCC6Ns60FtJLriUj-s6qnHk_oLXE&e=
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > - 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 -
>> >
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=nXvIlGPaA0afSqTVKLEjLr-TWuNju_R9QmeTon-yWss&s=lHBJ0WE2_Msjg_BXCC6Ns60FtJLriUj-s6qnHk_oLXE&e=
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>>
>> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
>> your lowly tomb. . .
>> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>>
>> The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
>> picture of his great-grandfather.)
>>
>> http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>


-- 
"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