BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952

Subject: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: meself
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 03:17 PM

Watching movie 'For King & Country', set in England at the time of the Korean War. A female character uses the expression 'making love' as a euphemism for, um, carnal relations. I was under the impression that until the 1960s, 'making love' had the sense of 'pitching woo', 'billing and cooing', flirting, etc. Am I wrong, or was that just in North America? And another one: a boy, seeing his uncle handcuffed to his prisoner, asks his uncle if he 'got busted'. I always thought of that as street/hippie slang not coming into vogue until the 1970s. Is it me or them?

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: bobad
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 03:28 PM

"In the early 20th century, however, to "make love" took on a new sense that Oxford defines this way: "orig. U.S. To engage in sexual intercourse, esp. considered as an act of love. Freq. with to, with."

The dictionary's first written example of this usage is from Sex, a 1927 play by Mae West: "Jimmy embraces Margie LaMont and goes through with her the business of making love to her by lying on top of her on a couch, each embracing the other." (The OED citation is from a 1997 collection of Mae West plays edited by Lillian Schlissel.)

We'll end with an example from George Orwell's 1934 novel Burmese Days: "Why is master always so angry with me when he has made love to me?"

From: http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/12/making-love.html

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 03:34 PM

The other day, I came across a Guy Lombardo version of Frankie and Johnny. I'm guessing it came from the 1950s. Look how it uses the term "making love," and then imagine having full-out sex with the help of a soda straw...

Frankie And Johnny
Guy Lombardo version

Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts,
And oh, what a couple in love,
Frankie was loyal to Johnny,
Just as true as the stars above,
He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong.

Frankie went down to the drug store,
Some ice cream, she wanted to buy,
And the soda jerk told her that Johnny
Was makin' love to Nellie Bly...
He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong.

Now, Frankie's dad was a policeman,
So she stole his old .44 gun,
And then back to the drug store she beat it,
Just as fast as she could run,
After the man who was doin' her wrong.

And Frankie peeked in on the party,
She got a surprise when she saw,
Nellie and Johnny were makin' love,
And sippin' soda through a straw;
He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong.

So Frankie flew into a tantrum,
Then she whipped out that long .44,
And, roo-ta-ti-toot, that gal she did shoot,
Through that hardwood swingin' door,
She shot her man, 'cause he was doin' her wrong.

So bring on your crepe and your flowers,
And bring on your rubber-tired hack,
'Cause there's eight men to go to the graveyard,
But only seven are comin' back.
She got her man, 'cause he was doin' her wrong.

So this is the end of my story,
And this is the end of my song.
Frankie is down in the jailhouse,
And she cries the whole night long:
"He was my man, but he done me wrong."

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 04:09 PM

The facts are the facts, but movies are art (more or less). While it's true that people said 'making love' early in the century, if I were making a movie today, I wouldn't use the expression, because it would be a jarring note to viewers who react to it as an anachronism.

The same is true for 'being busted.'

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Jul 16 - 08:01 PM

It meant either then, according to context. In fact it still does.

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: Thompson
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 04:21 AM

1900 to perhaps 1930 'making love' was wooing. But certainly by the 1950s it meant having sexual intercourse together.

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 08:28 AM

The Mae West example seems ambiguous to me. But this one is not. From Philip Arnall's autobiographical novel "Portrait of an Airman" (1931), set in the RFC/RAF during the First World War:

"She had thrown off her dressing-gown and was asking Stephen to make love to her."

Arnall uses the phrase in this "carnal" sense more than once.

McGrath is right about context.

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: meself
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 01:12 PM

I first recall thinking about the term 'making love' - beyond figuring out what the Rolling Stones meant by it - when I heard a certain interview with the singer Anne Murray. She (born 1945) was talking about her kids' reaction to one of her Top 40 hits: she didn't initially understand the kids' revulsion to their mother singing about 'making love', but eventually grasped that it meant something different to them than to her. She made it clear that to her this was a generational difference in the understanding of the term. Now, she was of the rural middle-class of Nova Scotia, and may have had a somewhat sheltered childhood, but as a young woman involved in the music business in Halifax, she would have been rubbing shoulders with characters from all strata of society ... so I wonder if the term 'making love' meaning 'sex' was more common in England pre-1960s than in North America (or, at least, Canada)?

As for the way it's used now: I would be quite surprised to come across it meaning anything other than 'having sex' now - again, the case may be different across the pond - any examples?

And what about 'got busted', meaning arrested? Anyone hear of that before the 1960s?

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 02:27 PM

"Busted" was in print as prison slang as early as 1940, but it didn't become widely known until the '60s.

I agree that few "young people today" are likely to recognize the "sweet nothings" sense of "make love."

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: mkebenn
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 02:42 PM

Hard to imagine Mr Morrison pitching woo behind the stadium to his browned girl. In the sixties, busted had a drug connotation, I think you'd have been arrested for murder or robbery etc. Mike(stateside)

Subject: RE: BS: English Vernacular ca. 1952
From: meself
Date: 24 Jul 16 - 02:54 PM

Agreed - you were 'busted', as I first knew it, for drug possession, etc.