Hepster Dictionary

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

Very interesting. I remembered Wilmer much more as the punk than as a gunsel. Well cast in the '41 filming, by the way. As with most of the r?¥les, except maybe for Miss O'Shaughnessy, by the way.

Do you think Hammett chose this first name because, depending on the regional variety of the English tongue, it sounds just like Wilma? (Probably reading to much into it.)

 

[Feraud]

"Gunsel" has become to mean a gunman, body guard, torpedo, etc. due to the writing of Dashiell Hammett and his emulators in the hard-boiled detective genre. "Gunsel" or "Gonzel" originally meant the "young male companion of an older homosexual man".

A variation from Yiddish if I remember my trivia correctly.

Do you think Hammett chose this first name because, depending on the regional variety of the English tongue, it sounds just like Wilma? (Probably reading to much into it.)

That is a very good guess.

 

[Shaul-Ike Cohen]

A variation from Yiddish if I remember my trivia correctly.

That would be ganzel(e) or genzel(e), meaning little goose, an alternative to the more common term faygele (birdie).

 

[Haversack]

Shaul-Ike Cohen hat geschreibt:
"Very interesting. I remembered Wilmer much more as the punk than as a gunsel."

If you all can tolerate some more word-history... "Punk" originally meant "a cheap whore or prostitute". Its first written usage was in 1596 and it was very popular for the next 150 years or so. It was also heavily used in Restoration comedies. (which tended to be quite bawdy.) In the New World, the cheap and worthless quality of the word "punk" began to be applied to spongey, rotten wood by the end of the 17th C. (Possibly with help from an Algonquian word meaning "living ashes'". This use continues to today as you can still purcahse "punk sticks" to light fireworks, (where legal). In the 19th C. punk's connotations of "rotten, cheap, and worthless", began to be applied to "empty-headed talk", "an inexperienced youth", and "a hoodlum". Which brings it into the Golden Age. The word has since acquired new meanings beginning in the 1970s. The connotations it implies have, however, continued.

Haversack.

 

[magneto]

Lord Buckley?!! Come on, throw me a bone!!!

(George Harrison's song 'Crackerbox Palace' was written about Lord Buckley.

..the sweetest, ever-lovin', cool daddy-cat,
Dixon Cannon

I've heard of him, and seen copies of some of his 50s records... funny the "Lord" was Native American

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Oliver Trager described him thusly...

I've heard of him, and seen copies of some of his 50s records... funny the "Lord" was Native American

"Lord Buckley: the white, six-and-a-half-foot-tall, ex-lumberjack cat who invoked both the manners of the English aristocracy and the street language of black America ... Lord Buckley: the picaresque pill-popping darling of Al Capone ... Lord Buckley: the jazz philosopher who jammed with Charlie Parker ... Lord Buckley: the original viper, the Hall of Fame Hipster, the baddest Beatnik, the first flower child, the premier rapper ... best known for his 'hipsemantic' retellings of Bible stories, Shakespeare soliloquies, and modern poetry in the 1950s."


There has been a lot of people influenced by Lord Buckley who have never heard his material.

-dixon cannon

 

[Brian Sheridan]

I think we need to bring back the word "Moxie."

 

[kools]

HA that looks great; Thanks Magneto! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080...267355-6810467 (And yes, great song, I've got it by some fellow, sounds like Fats Waller but it's not.)

Mezz Mezzrow obviously recorded his own version...he certainly was no great shakes as a singer. My favorite take on it is by Stuff Smith with Jonah Jones.

 

[Pink Dahlia]

Found the Family Guy "Fast Talking High Trousers" on youtube.com. HILARIOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_umKyhvqho

 

[Laughing Magpie]

I hadn't seen that before, Pink Dahlia - solid!

I agree with The Wingnut, way back in August, that it's best to focus on a few key phrases or words at a time.

I've been trying to rally my crowd around "nerts!" as a bring-back word. Turns out I know quite a few people who already liked it and were using it from time to time, and so now Project Nerts is underway. I try to say it out loud at least once a week.

"Solid" and "Moxie" are worthy words too!

Jen

 

[Dixon Cannon]

The Lord Buckley banter...

http://www.lordbuckley.com/The_Printheads/TheWordOfTheLord.html

One cool daddycat!

-dixon cannon

 

[Cousin Hepcat]

Found the Family Guy "Fast Talking High Trousers" on youtube.com. HILARIOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_umKyhvqho

HA! Great, thanks Pink Dahlia :eusa_clap

- C H