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

[Jonathan Lighter]

A few hours earlier:

1944 Oakland [Cal.] Tribune (Nov. 13) 13 [N] : From P-38s to the new "Blow
Job" - the jet-propulsion plane we've been reading about....[A]and there is
the jet - the "Blow Job" - doing a slow barrel roll.

The article confirms that the plane in question was a P-59 at Muroc.

And now this:

1945 (June 16), in Eagle (South Sioux City, Neb.) (Sept. 20) 1 [N]:  When I
landed in Italy the first thing I heard was a small boy on a Naples street
corner: "Hey, Joe, hey Joe, see the senorita, Joe, blow job, one pack
cigarettes!"

Clearly not a "family" newspaper. The same GI writer also mentions a "short
arm."

JL

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 8:33 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the kind words, Fred. I wish I could have finished it.
>
> If Jesse's 1944 ex. was coined at Muroc, the plane in question was
> undoubtedly the Bell P-59 Airacomet. Designed a fighter, it was used only
> for training, because its performance was still somewhat inferior to the
> most advanced U.S. piston-engined fighters.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 7:37 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> 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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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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