[Ads-l] Fw: Possible Antedating of "Blow Job"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I should add, of course, that Lighter's Historical Dictionary of American Slang is one of the greatest historical-lexicograhical masterpieces of all time.  I was just noting that the OED is more conservative in its dating policies than Lighter.  The same is probably true of the OED versus Jonathon Green.

Fred Shapiro


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
Sent: Monday, June 6, 2022 6:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Possible Antedating of "Blow Job"

I don't have Legman's _No Laughing Matter_ handy to check the context of the 1942 quote in HDAS (in my experience Legman is very reliable about bibliographic matters) but here's a 1944 discussing the coinage of the jet aviation sense:

1944 _Aviation Week_ 13 Nov. 12/2 (in box): [heading] "Blow Jobs" [body] Credit Army Air Force squadrons based at Muroc Army Air Field and other Mojave Desert bases with having coined the name that doubtless will tag American jet propulsion fighter trainers wherever they appear. Well out of the experimental phase of testing, the JP's are engaging daily in the tactical training of bombing and fighter groups in California skies. To flight and ground crews alike the jet fighter trainers are "blow jobs".

Jesse Sheidlower

On Mon, Jun 06, 2022 at 10:08:11PM +0000, Bill Mullins wrote:
> I wonder if the following 1945 quotes, given their military context (referring to the new P-80 jet planes), should be taken as evidence of earlier usage.
>
> 1945 NY Herald Tribune 1 Aug. 5/1
>
> It sucks air in at the front and blows it out at the end faster than it came in.  It's a blow job.  It simply blows itself forward.
>
> 1945 NY Times 1 Aug. 4/6
>
> Col. Homer S. Boushey, commanding the training group, declared that basically the "blow job" as the jet plane is called, was simpler to fly than the conventional airplane.
>
> (The articles don't say if Col. Boushey sniggered as he made these statements . . . . )
>
> >
> > blow job (OED 1961)
> >
> > 1947 George Grieg _Frantic_ 8 (Archives of Sexuality and Gender)  I wonder if
> > any of those girls would give me a blow job ?
> >
> > NOTE:  I am not sure whether this is the earliest known citation for this term,
> > because Jonathan Lighter's datings are less rigorous than those in the OED, and
> > I don't know whether the OED would agree with his 1942 and 1945 datings of
> > citations in HDAS.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
>
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