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"sit on one's kiester"

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 05, 2006

In Reply to: "Sit on one's kiester" posted by aers on June 05, 2006

: I searched the archive for "sit on one's kiester" and thought it
: missed the point, according to what I had heard.

: Traveling salesman's maxim: You can't get ahead sitting on your kiester.

: Kiester being either a German or a Yiddish term for sample case. Naturally,
: non-German non-Yiddish non-drummers (itinerant peddlers) mistook this to
: mean sitting on one's butt.

Perhaps you overlooked the question about "pain in the sitter" and subsequent posts, all the way back in June 1-2, 2006, which dealt with keister (pronounced as though kiester). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, keister was used in the late 19th century for various kinds of case: suitcase, satchel, sample-case, jewelry case and others. By 1931 it had become a slang term for the rear end, or buttocks. Does this clarify your clarification? SS

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