[Ads-l] Mae West (life jacket)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Rhyming slang for "life vest" is my guess.

Mae West was not especially busty.

JL

On Thu, Aug 15, 2024 at 2:45 PM James Landau <
00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> two different etymologies for "Mae West" meaning life jacket:
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=yu9H0Hv4Ot4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=operation+mincemeat&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjepPSm0PeHAxU0FFkFHSJ3IQIQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=rhyming%20slang&f=false
>
> Ben Macintyre _Operation Mincemeat_ New York: Harmony Books, 2010 ISBN
> 978-0-307-45327-3, page 168
> "The yellow military [life] jackets were known as "Mae Wests," from
> rhyming slang for "breasts."  When fully inflated, the rubber jacket gave
> the wearer a distinctly busty look reminiscent, if you happened to be a
> sex-starved soldier, of the curvaceous film star."
> Which etymology is correct, rhyming slang or the film star?
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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