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You turn me on

Posted by ESC on December 01, 2006

In Reply to: You turn me on posted by Jessie on December 01, 2006

: I am looking for the origin of the phrase "you turn me on" - any ideas?

The original meaning, I am assuming, is turning on an appliance. One reference says "turn on" meaning the following originated in the 1950s with the Beat Generation (which began with ".a serious literary movement involving a relatively small group of men who met each other while coming of age in New York in the 1940s"): 1. To use drugs and become intoxicated. 2. To introduce someone to something that one likes. The meaning "a sexually arousing action" developed in the Hippie Counterculture of the 1960s. "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster Inc., Springfield, Md., 1996)Pages 93 and 150.

Turn on, tune in and drop out. See:
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