[Ads-l] Heard: "bud" > _butt_

[Wilson Gray]

> Well, OK, but to say that every buck [sic—I’m just reporting] was naked
is not to say that “buck naked” is > > a modifier-noun phrase here.

Indeed. But what does "buck-naked" mean? To be as naked as a buck, perhaps?
Back in the day, male, i.e. "buck" Indians were noted for their
semi-nudity. In a 50's paperback novel set in the French & Indian War
during the winter, the George Washington avatar and his Indian-chief
sidekick enjoy a bit of repartee something like the following. "Chief, I'm
wearing my whole duffle bag plus a buffalo robe and I'm *still* freezing my
arse off! Yet, *you* seem perfectly comfy, though you're barely wearing a
breech-clout. Whut up wit dat?" "Ugh, Col. Avatar. White man dick get
cold?" "Why, no. It doesn't." "Injun body *all* dick!"

But I have no memory of any kind WRT the TV character, even after Googling
and YouTubing him.

On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 8:04 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Feb 19, 2021, at 5:21 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > I remember the shows, but not the character.
> >
> > The Way of the Cliff Dwellers
> > Privately printed [by R.F. Seymour], 1917 - Indians of North America - 64
> > pages - page 24
> > The costuming was uniform, every _buck naked_ save for a cloth of
> buckskin
> > about the loins and richly ornamented moccasins .
> >
>
> Well, OK, but to say that every buck [sic—I’m just reporting] was naked is
> not to say that “buck naked” is a modifier-noun phrase here.
>
> You can see the character Wilson is remembering from Hill Street Blues
> here (Sepinwall is a frequent reviewer of pop culture):
>
> https://twitter.com/sepinwall/status/1291764483547947008?lang=en
>
> Apparently George Costanza picked up on the name, although not the
> referent, as can be seen downthread. And the Wikipedia site for HSB fills
> us in on that character and the actor portraying him:
>
> "Buck Naked" Gilbert (Lee Weaver, 1981–87)
> Famous for appearing almost randomly, opening his trenchcoat, and yelling,
> "I'm Buck NEKKID!" So frequently did he make this exclamation that he was
> once booked as "Buck Naked". At one point he is a material witness in a
> murder trial, but he destroys his credibility after testifying by exposing
> himself to the judge. Known to prefer turkey dinners, as ham
> "disconveniences (his) stomach"; also insists on polyester or wool blended
> fabric (when he does wear clothes) as "wool scratches me up". He is once
> arrested and placed in a cell with a number of other inmates, at which
> point he delivers the following address: "Fellow Americans: I wanna address
> you on the subject of 'rights'! We got human rights. We got
> 'in-unALIENable' rights! We got the right to bear arms! An' I got a right
> to bear my po' black ass!" Predictably, he disrobes after this.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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

------------------------------------------------------------
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