[Ads-l] booty, 1938

[Z Sohna]

When there is a significant population of African descent in the United
States who:


1.     use words of African origin to refer to their body parts or aspects
thereof:

*niní* ‘breast’ < Mende* ɲini* ‘breast’

*kichin* ‘nape’ < Kikongo *ki**ʧiŋgu *‘nape’; Kimbundu *kiʃiŋgu *‘nape’

*kichin* ‘tightly curled or coiled hair(s)’ < Kikongo *ki**ʒiŋgu *‘coil’,
‘spiral’; Kikongo *nʒingu *‘curl’

     Cf. Bahamian English *kuzin* ‘tightly curled or coiled hair’

*wudí* ‘penis’, ‘erect penis’ < Bamanakan *ɟirikɔrɔta* ‘erect penis’ <
Bamanakan *ɟiri* ‘wood’

     Cf. Twi *dua* ‘penis’ Holm 1988, 83 < Twi *edua* ‘wood’

     Cf. Haitian Creole *bwa* ‘penis’, ‘literally “wood”

*kúchí*, *chúchí* ‘female pudenda’, ‘vulva’ < Fulfulde *ʧuːʧi* ‘female
pudenda’, ‘vulva’



2.     use African-derived calques to refer to the ‘self’:

*head* ‘self’ < Wolof *bɔːpːə* ‘head’, ‘self’

     1978 Aug 22 James Hall *James Hall: World War II toast (1978)* YouTube

     https://youtu.be/ER7HQ_M0dAA?t=94s

     I had to get my Black *head* in the Philippines, that’s where I was.
[…] I was in the Philippines.



     2011 Oct 5 UNAPOLOGETIC THICK *@naychenn* Twitter

     https://archive.is/GOUjh

     Chil' please. Sit yo *head* down!



     Cf. Haitian Creole *tèt *‘self’ (< French *tête* ‘head’)

     Cf. Cape Verdean Creole *kabesa* ‘self’, ‘head’ (< Portuguese *cabeça*
‘head’)



*ass* ‘self’ < Igbo (Delta) *ike* ‘buttocks’, ‘self’

     (Note: used in figurative expressions in Delta Igbo dialects to refer
to the “self”)

     Cf. Haitian Creole *bunda* ‘buttocks’, ‘self’ (via Holm’s *Pidgins and
Creoles Vol. 1*)



…then yes, you absolutely should include Wolof (and all other relevant
African languages) in any good faith effort to research the origin of *búdí*
or “booty”. That's just basic due diligence.



Moreover, when “conservative” estimates** put the proportion of
Senegambians trafficked to the United States at roughly 25% of those
trafficked from the continent (sources linked below), then YES, you
absolutely should look at Wolof (and all other neighboring languages) as
part of any good faith effort to research the origin of *búdí* or “booty” –
as the Wolof are indeed Senegambians.


Regards,

Zola S.


** Sources:

https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/freedom/text1/text1read.htm
http://www.slavevoyages.org/estimates/c6ngHcmc


__________________________________________________________


Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 2022 10:12:19 -0500
From:    Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: booty, 1938

Since Lomax was from Texas, I assume the word was his rather than Delmas's
in Michigan. In any case, I think he'd have put it in quotes had it been
new to him.

 I much doubt the OED's wild guess at an origin in the English nursery word
"bot" (for "bottom"). "Body" would seem just as likely or unlikely. Even
standard "booty" isn't inconceivable as an etymon.

And there's always Wolof...

JL

On Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 4:38 AM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Of interest because
>
> I'm not particularly familiar with Lomax's note-taking style -
fellow-Texan
> though he be -
> but he takes no particular notice of _booty_, as though he finds nothing
> unusual about
> the use of the word in this rather-specialized, extended meaning.
>
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2022 at 10:29 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Of interest because it's early and in white use.
> >
> > 1938 Alan Lomax "Mss., Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois"
> >
> >
>
https://www.loc.gov/resource/afc2004004.ms070205/?sp=76&r=-0.381,0.818,1.941,0.887,0
> > The people here have the pioneer candor. Potter, Delmas and the rest [of
> > the lumbermen] loved their wives...because they were good partners in
the
> > bed and say so. Delmas, the old man, was terribly sentimental about his
> > dead Indian wife, proud of...her ability to cook and her good booty.
> >
> > 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

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