Two by
two
Posted by R. Berg on February 22, 2002
In Reply to: Re: Different origin? posted
by Word Camel on February 22, 2002
: : : : : : : And we could
mention knockers, a mild vulgarism for breasts ... which makes the British music
hall song "knockers up, ladies, knockers up..." particularly amusing to us Yanks.
:
: : : : : Thank you for sharing.
: : : : : A guinea to a dollar says that "knockers"
was originally UK slang. I have no proof, but it just sounds like it should be.
:
: : : I'm a little embarrassed to admit I did a word search through the text of
Fanny Hill, wondering if knock might turn up. It does, though two out of three
times it is to do with doors. The other time alludes to a door, though it's not
really a door - and it's the wrong door actually - but either way, it isn't quite
what we were looking for.
: : : : Anyway, I'm wondering if any one knows approximately
when and where it was first used this way? Maybe if we knew this, we could work
out where it's from. Is it cryptically indicated in the definition from the slang
dictionary? I wasn't sure about the meanings of the apprevations.
: : : : I'm
after that guinea. How many dollars to a guinea do you suppose?
: : : I was
trying to direct the discussion towards the wholesome topic of knock-knock jokes.
But noooooo.
: : : KNOCKERS - ".the vulgar KNOCKERS (1940s and 1950s)." From
the "Wordsworth Book of Euphemism" by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth
Editions, Hertfordshire, 1995).
: : : " 'Bosom,' 'breast,' and 'tit' (meaning
teat) all date from Old English, before the Norman invasion of 1066. Calling the
complete female breasts, especially well-developed ones, 'tits,' 'melons,' 'breastworks,'
'boobs,' 'boobies,' 'knobs,' and 'knockers' may be fairly old, but such words
were seldom batted about widely until World War II, when pin-up pictures and the
American male's 'breast fixation' made them a very popular part of the language."
From "I Hear America Talking" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co.,
New York, 1976).
: : The Dictionary of American Slang, ed. Wentworth & Flexner,
1960, says "Although an old term, very common since c1940."
: : The OED doesn't
have "knocker" in this sense, but it has another, perhaps related sense for the
word: "Slang. A person of 'striking' appearance, or who moves others to admiration.
. . . [Representative quotation:] 1620 MIDDLETON They're pretty children both,
but here's a wench Will be a knocker."
:
: Door knockers. Think about it.
Breasts sort of rest on the rib cage like the moveable joint on a door knocker.
Why would they be referred to as a *pair* of knockers otherwise?
: Just a late
night thought...
: Camel
They would be referred to as a pair of anything because
there are two of them. Go to bed. -- rb
- Re: Ce n'est pas
un heurtoir Relentless Camel 02/22/02 (
4)
|