[Ads-l] Main squeeze

[Dan Goncharoff]

Aces and eights have never been beaten, so the saying goes.

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 4:24 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> > On Jul 14, 2023, at 9:54 AM, Steven Losie <stevenlosie at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > ...
> > OED3's Sense (b) of "main squeeze" is defined as "a sweetheart, a lover",
> > which the OED claims began as a pun on "squeeze (n. 2b)", which is
> defined
> > as "a close embrace, a hug". Both the OED and GDoS date this sense of
> "main
> > squeeze" to 1926, but two earlier attestations support this sense's
> origins
> > as a pun:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > Billy—"Tilly seems to be very popular." Milly—"Oh, she lets all the
> fellows
> > hug her." Billy—"Thinks she's the main squeeze, eh?"
> > [end quote]
> > Source: Allentown (PA) Morning Call, Dec 14, 1920, p.18, col.5
> > Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > "Now, there's Miss Klacker," said Augustus. "She is a brunet, and pretty.
> > She has very small feet and a tiny mouth. But she is poor, and I prefer
> > rich ones."
> >
> > "But her father runs a large apple orchard and I heard that she was the
> > main squeeze in the cider department," said Tom.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: The Pittsburg Press (Pittsburgh, PA), July 29, 1921, p.18, col.3
> > Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > The OED's first attestation of Sense (b) comes from Maines and Grant's
> 1926
> > _Wise-crack Dictionary_, which is also the first instance where Sense (b)
> > is used without referencing the pun. GDoS uses the same source:
> >
> > 1926   G. H. Maines & B. Grant Wise-crack Dict. 11/2   Main squeeze, best
> > girl.
> >
> > Another unambiguous usage of "main squeeze" in this romantic sense is not
> > found for another 41 years, but there are three more instances of the
> > phrase in that period that I could find that do at least hint at it. But
> > these could also be read as broad usages of Sense (a):
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > "Singing The Blues" was so well liked that it necessitated four encores
> to
> > satisfy the craving of the dancers for more. Rose Marie Jones was absent,
> > much to the sorrow of several young men who have been trying to second
> > fiddle the main squeeze. S'matter, Rose Marie?
> > [end quote]
> > Source: The Light and Heebie Jeebies (Chicago, Illinois)
> > Article Title: "The Dance - Metronomes"
> > Oct 22, 1927, p.39, col.1
> > America's Historical Newspapers (Readex / Newsbank)
> >
> > The following instance is another written by Chicago-based syndicated
> > columnist George Ade. The typo is in the original ("wine" should be
> "mine"):
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > Have you sized up my new strip o' calico? Little brighteyes is a peach, a
> > cute rag, a lallypaloozer, a honey-cooler, a jimdandy, a scorchalorum. I
> > hot-footed up to her hang-out, got the glad hand an' we proceeded to
> > circulate. With her I'm the main squeeze, aces and eights,
>
>
> Wondering about this last one.  I know from “main squeeze” but “aces and
> eights” I’ve always identified as the Dead Man’s Hand, so called because
> supposedly after Will Bill Hickok was fatally shot from behind in Deadwood,
> someone turned over his poker hand and it was…a pair of aces and a pair of
> eights.  Since then aces and eights has been (considered) bad luck.  Not
> sure how it’s functioning here. Maybe the strip o’ calico in question isn’t
> as fond of the speaker as he likes to think. At the very least, I hope he
> watched his back.
>
> LH
>
> > the stroke oar.
> > Without tossin' any bouquets at myself, I'll put you hep to the fact that
> > all the yaps, jays, greenies, rubes an' yokels are also-rans. She's nuts
> > about me. When I wrap my fin around her an' take the old lunch-hook in
> > wine, she can't see nobody else with a telescope. Yes sir, I've copped
> out
> > a queen an' she's for me from sody to hock, from soup to nuts.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: The Hartford Courant, April 29, 1934, p. D2, col.3
> > Article Title: Slang Of Today Invented Back In The Gay Nineties
> > Author: George Ade
> > Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > The final instance from before the 1960s is more clearly Sense (a) in pun
> > form, arriving at Sense (b), similar to the 1920 and 1921 instances. The
> > phrase is found in the caption of a one-panel cartoon from 1943,
> > accompanying a suggestive drawing of a young female stenographer sitting
> on
> > her older, male boss's lap:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > The office stenog thinks that she is the main squeeze in her outfit.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: Binghamton (NY) Press
> > Comic strip title: Witty Kitty
> > September 3, 1943, p.28, col.2
> > Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > Still, the romantic Sense (b) of "main squeeze" is not found again with
> > certainty until 1967, when it appeared in a widely-reprinted Boston Globe
> > article as slang among the Black American community:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > NEGRO TERM [.....] ENGLISH TRANSLATION
> >
> > [..]
> >
> > main squeeze [.....] best girl
> > [end quote]
> > Source: Boston Globe, June 11, 1967, p.E7, col.3
> > Article Title: Americans Who Can't Speak Their Own Language
> > Author: Lloyd Shearer
> > Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > The next found instance is also the first instance to use "main squeeze"
> in
> > the familiar possessive form:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > [Albert] King has a husky voice that is suited to just talking out his
> > material. In the ten minutes of "Blues Power," King tells you exactly
> where
> > he is at. "I ain't seen my main squeeze for ten long weeks today. I got
> the
> > blues. . .Can you dig it?" Then the guitar explodes into sound and you
> > can't help but dig it.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: The Spectrum (Buffalo, New York), November 5, 1968, p.12, col.2
> > Article Title: Record Review: Live Wire / Blues Power
> > Database: NYS Historic Newspapers
> >
> > Sense (b) appeared regularly thereafter, but neither the OED nor GDoS
> have
> > citations for it until 1971 or later, aside from the isolated 1926
> instance
> > in the aforementioned _Wise-crack Dictionary_. Here are four more
> citations
> > for Sense (b) before 1970:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > Main man — A woman's boyfriend; a man's closest friend. Feminine form:
> > _main squeeze_.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: New York Times Magazine, Dec 8, 1968, p.88, col.3
> > Title: Soul Story
> > Author: Adrian Dove
> > Database: Proquest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > Ellipses in the original:
> > [begin quote]
> > New Nomenclature to Note: "Main squeeze"...a guy's best girl.
> > "Fly"...spectacular scene, THE thing. "Rap"...to talk, gossip.
> > [end quote]
> > Syndicated in various newspapers including:
> > Source: Florence Times (Florence, Alabama), March 14, 1969, p.A2, col.4
> > Article title: Youth Beat
> > Author: Robert MacLeod
> > Database: Google Books
> >
> > Typo in the original ("in" should be "is"):
> > [begin quote]
> > Slanguage: The "main squeeze" in now a guy's steady chick.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: New York Daily News (as New York Sunday News), May 4, 1969, p.47,
> > col.2
> > Article Title: Strictly Youthsville
> > Author: Adam Di Petto
> > Database: ProQuest Historical Newspapers
> >
> > Ellipses in the original:
> > [begin quote]
> > IT'S WHAT'S HAPPENING . . . JOIN THE SOUL UNDERGROUND . . . GET YOUR
> > OFFICIAL SOUL POWER, SOUL BROTHER OR SOUL SISTER SWEATSHIRT . . .
> >
> > [..]
> >
> > GET ONE FOR YOURSELF, AND ONE FOR YOUR MAIN SQUEEZE . . .
> > [end quote]
> > Source: Soul (Los Angeles, CA), August 11, 1969, p.15, col.1
> > Database: America's Historical Newspapers (Readex / Newsbank)
> >
> > In July 1969, Quincy Jones released an instrumental single called "Main
> > Squeeze". Janis Joplin was being backed by a backing band called "Main
> > Squeeze" by the end of the year.
> >
> > Note that the "important person" sense of the phrase was still in
> > occasional use into the 1950s:
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > Informed Citizens in Action is the new name of what used to be Citizens
> in
> > Action, Inc., a non-profit organization. J. Frank Burke, who dynamoed the
> > original, seems to be the main squeeze in the newly named group.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: Daily News (Los Angeles, CA), Jan 23, 1952, p.17, col.2
> > Article title: Taft Still GOP Fair-Haired Boy
> > Author: Leslie E. Claypool
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> > [begin quote]
> > However, to keep in practice for the official banquet, the group would
> meet
> > for a feed several times a year on the call of the Main Squeeze, who was
> > Mr. Henne himself.
> > [end quote]
> > Source: The Journal-news (Spencerville, OH), Aug 19, 1954, p.1, col.2
> > Article title: The Good Word
> > Author: "ben"
> > Database: Newspapers.com
> >
> > Given all these citations, it would appear that "main squeeze" likely
> > originated as a bit of gambling slang, possibly in the Chicago area in
> the
> > late 1800s, using the OED's sense (n. 3a.) of "squeeze", which they trace
> > back as far as 1639: "To press upon (a person, etc.) so as to exact or
> > extort money; to fleece."
> >
> > The OED also has definitions (n. 1e.) and (v. 1f.) of "squeeze" that
> relate
> > to card-playing, both of which first appeared in the U.S. in the 1890s,
> > around the same time that "main squeeze" Sense (a) first did. These are
> all
> > used in a sense of pressuring someone for money.
> >
> > The term was then transferred to the romantic sense of "main squeeze",
> > originating as a pun using OED's "squeeze" sense (2b.), referring to an
> > embrace or hug. The OED traces this hug sense of "squeeze" back to 1790.
> > "Main squeeze" in the romantic sense (first as a pun) began appearing in
> > the 1920s, though it wasn't until the 1960s that it began to appear in
> > print regularly, which resulted in Sense (a) being mostly forgotten
> > thereafter.
> >
> > Antedatings and revisions are welcome.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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