on 10/6/02 5:24 AM, Robin Hamilton at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> Jill:
>
> I shouldn't have been +quite+ so snappy about the New Fowler -- it is (I
> feel) better than the old, in its own area. But when it comes to slang ...
>
Hi Robin,
No wuckers, sport, as they say, I can roll with a wee bit of snappiness.
(It's a bit of a feature on petc at the mo' but the 'delete' button can be
your friend if needed.)
Thanks for all the refs and will follow when I can. I suspect our library at
work will be somewhat limited (though I could get lucky) so will wait for
some much-needed down time. The dictionary of Jacobean and Stuart sexual
terms sounds like great fun.
By the way, I was thinking of the work of Melbourne linguist Gary Simes. He
has written a bit on gay slang, and I believe a dictionary is in the works.
A 1992 article of his was The Language of Homosexuality in Australia which
was included Gary Wotherspoon's and Bob Aldrich's Gay Perspectives: Essays
in Australian Gay Culture (Sydney: Department of Economic History, Uni of
Sydney, pp. 31-58). In his view, the word 'gay' developed negative
connotations in the early 17th cent and was sometimes applied to men and
women of 'loose' morals (can't you hear 'em rattling) and in the 18th cent a
'gay house' was a brothel. Apparently there was an 1899 US court case in
which a male prostitute described himself as 'gay' but Simes reckons it was
Gertrude Stein who began using the word to describe homosexuals in the 1920s
in Paris.
Completely off topic, so youse all can hit the delete button now unless
interested, Simes has also published A Dictionary of Australian Underworld
Slang (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993) which unearthed a lot of
fascinating 1940s and 50s Australian prison slang including 'fruit for the
sideboard' - easy pickings, 'tank' - a safe, 'track' - a prison warder who
carries contraband messages or goods out of or into a prison for a prisoner,
'button up' - cease betting or lower one's stakes considerably when one is
winning, 'chicken thief' - a petty thief, 'leafing' - a method of
fraudulently short changing a customer.
Back to celebrating Betty's birfday.
Cheers,
Jill
_________________________________
Jill Jones
50 Ruby Street
Marrickville NSW 2204
AUSTRALIA
[log in to unmask]
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
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