Showing posts with label Beat Generation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beat Generation. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
1950's American Slang Word of the Day #4
The definitions for the 1950's slang word of the day come word for word straight out of 'The pocket dictionary of American Slang' pub.1960 and compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner.
The 1950's American Slang Word of the Day is :
Cat. adj. Drunk. n. 1. A Spiteful woman; A malicious gossip. coloqu. 2. A Lion, a Tiger, a Leopard or any other member of the cat family. circus use. 3. A man who dresses in the latest fashions and pursues women. A dude. A Sport, one who Tomcats, one who is worldly, wise, or Hep. Probably from "Alligator", "Gator", "Gate", and then corrupted to "Cat", reinforced by "Tomcat". Mostly Negro use. 4. A Jazz musician associated with and popularized by Swing use.
Wide bop use but cool and far out musicians are not referred to as cats by their devotees. Fairly well known general use since c.1940. 5. A Devotee of Jive and Swing, a hepcat, jive and swing use 1935-1942. 6. A devotee or any member of a group that is or anyone that appreciates bop, cool, far out, or beat. Anyone who is a member of the avante garde of music, art or literature. Any Non conformist, specifically a hipster. used by members of these groups since c.1950 and fairly common general use since c.1955 mainly owing to the sensational newspaper articles about hipsters and the beat generation,. 7. A man, a fellow or guy. Any human being. 1. To court or seek women for sexual reasons. To consort with prostitutes or promiscuous women. 2. To gossip, to make disparaging remarks 3. To loaf or idle. To spend ones time idling on street corners. Some teenage street gang use since c.1950 .
Example: "Hey Chooch, that guy Paulo is a real smooth Cat. He a friend of yours?"
Clarification: "Hey Charles, that young man Paul is quite a polished and refined gentleman. Is he someone that you know well?"
The 1950's American Slang Word of the Day is :
Cat. adj. Drunk. n. 1. A Spiteful woman; A malicious gossip. coloqu. 2. A Lion, a Tiger, a Leopard or any other member of the cat family. circus use. 3. A man who dresses in the latest fashions and pursues women. A dude. A Sport, one who Tomcats, one who is worldly, wise, or Hep. Probably from "Alligator", "Gator", "Gate", and then corrupted to "Cat", reinforced by "Tomcat". Mostly Negro use. 4. A Jazz musician associated with and popularized by Swing use.
Wide bop use but cool and far out musicians are not referred to as cats by their devotees. Fairly well known general use since c.1940. 5. A Devotee of Jive and Swing, a hepcat, jive and swing use 1935-1942. 6. A devotee or any member of a group that is or anyone that appreciates bop, cool, far out, or beat. Anyone who is a member of the avante garde of music, art or literature. Any Non conformist, specifically a hipster. used by members of these groups since c.1950 and fairly common general use since c.1955 mainly owing to the sensational newspaper articles about hipsters and the beat generation,. 7. A man, a fellow or guy. Any human being. 1. To court or seek women for sexual reasons. To consort with prostitutes or promiscuous women. 2. To gossip, to make disparaging remarks 3. To loaf or idle. To spend ones time idling on street corners. Some teenage street gang use since c.1950 .
Example: "Hey Chooch, that guy Paulo is a real smooth Cat. He a friend of yours?"
Clarification: "Hey Charles, that young man Paul is quite a polished and refined gentleman. Is he someone that you know well?"
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
1950s American Slang word of the Day #2
Scene. n. 1. any locale, place or room where cool music devotees gather to hear musicians play. some cool use. 2. Any place where cool people meet, specifically any event which a cool person attends. common cool, far out and beat use.
Example: "Lets cut and run Petey. Like, this is not the scene, hepcat!"
Clarification: "You and I should stop what we are doing and run away, Peter. This is not the place where cool people spend their time, my non-conformist friend."
Monday, January 25, 2010
1950's American Slang of the Day #1
Todays 1950's American slang phrase is:
"Lace (one's) boots" : To put (someone) wise. 1. To inform someone of anothers personal attitude, feelings or ideas; To warn, caution or advise someone. 2. To inform someone of a group attitute, basic concept or point of view, esp. in order generally to enlighten the person or make the person more alert, receptive or hip. Fairly common student and young adult use. In both instances, the person put wise is generally considered of inferior intellect, experience or sensitivity to the speaker. 3. equal to "wise up".
Example: "Somebody needs to lace that boys boots up real tight!"
Clarification: "A person besides myself should enlighten that young man about the rules around here in such a way that he should never forget them."
I've decided to post an American slang of the day from here on out. I found this great book during one of my thrifting forays; "The pocket dictionary of American Slang". It was published in 1960 and compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. It took ten years to prepare so a large majority of the 'substandard' language published within was at the height of its popularity during the 1950's. I'm going to open the book with my eyes closed and point to a word or phrase every single day, unless I break a leg or a tooth or something, and post it here.
The highly colored, many flavored words and expressions of every sector of our national life--
"Lace (one's) boots" : To put (someone) wise. 1. To inform someone of anothers personal attitude, feelings or ideas; To warn, caution or advise someone. 2. To inform someone of a group attitute, basic concept or point of view, esp. in order generally to enlighten the person or make the person more alert, receptive or hip. Fairly common student and young adult use. In both instances, the person put wise is generally considered of inferior intellect, experience or sensitivity to the speaker. 3. equal to "wise up".
Example: "Somebody needs to lace that boys boots up real tight!"
Clarification: "A person besides myself should enlighten that young man about the rules around here in such a way that he should never forget them."
I've decided to post an American slang of the day from here on out. I found this great book during one of my thrifting forays; "The pocket dictionary of American Slang". It was published in 1960 and compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. It took ten years to prepare so a large majority of the 'substandard' language published within was at the height of its popularity during the 1950's. I'm going to open the book with my eyes closed and point to a word or phrase every single day, unless I break a leg or a tooth or something, and post it here.
The highly colored, many flavored words and expressions of every sector of our national life--
the Beat generation, Madison Avenue, the underworld, prizefighters, teenyboppers, addicts,
astronauts, soda-jerks and hobos.
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