BS: Who was Johnson?

Subject: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: harvey andrews
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 06:07 PM

I know this request might sound flippant, but I'm always interested in language and derivations, and my spam mail as sorted by mailwasher, always carries the message "enlarge your Johnson". Now this isn't an expression used in the UK that I know of, so I surmise that it's a US euphemism.
Now,who can explain its derivation?
Who was Johnson?

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: GUEST, P. Niss
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 06:15 PM

Willie's cousin.

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 06:21 PM

I doubt it was any identifiable individual. The expression might have been a sort of cognitive back-formation from "Put your John Hancock here" (your identifying mark, after the flourishing signature at the bottom of the Declaration of Independence). Or it might have been a sort of generic use of an extremely common name, a sign of Everyman. These are hypotheses only, though!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 06:37 PM

The Dictionary of Slang and Euphemism (1991) states that the term Johnson is originally British slang going back to the 1800s. It says that it may go back as far as the 1700s. It is common in African-American slang.

It might have a connection with "John" which originally was used as slang for "privy," dating from the 1600s. John has also be used as slang for penis, as a short form of John Thomas, which itself dates from the 1800s), but Johnson may have come before John Thomas.

"John" and "Jack" are terms used for "everyman" in English. Jack is a term for penis from the early 1800s - and the term "Jack-off" comes either from that or from a shortening of "ejaculation."

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 09:42 PM

SO good to know these historical gems!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: CarolC
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 09:48 PM

So who was Peter?

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: khandu
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 09:54 PM

Peter?? Oh, tool!

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 11:09 PM

Wasn't Johnson the name of Bill Haley's “…one-eyed cat peekin’ in a seafood store”?

      - Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 12:41 AM

My maiden great-aunt Belle named her canary 'Peter Dickie'.

I suppose Sigmund Freud would have liked to have known about her.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 12:52 AM

Don't you think Peter O'Toole has the perfect porn star name?

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:25 AM

No doubt involved with Peter Sellers.

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 05:04 AM

Hmm... I'm from the UK (london & Norfolk), and I've never, ever heard anyone here say that. I always assumed it was US slang, as it's only in American books, etc, I've ever encountered it!

Cheers
Tracey Dragonsfriend
Scorch's Pyrography

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Nerd
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:18 PM

Well, Tracey, some elements of older British slang would be expected to survive in the US and not in Britain; this is part of what happens as two languages drift apart. So NOW it is American (primarily); but originally, like many English words it was...well, English!

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: GUEST,Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:36 PM

That appears to be the case in this instance Nerd.

There was an visible explosion in the pre-Victorian ear of "naughty" slang. Though how much of that was due to the willingness of publishers to include such words in their books ~vs~ actual new coining of words is unclear. A modern example would be the use of the word fuck, which is quite old, yet wasn't put into print on a regular basis until the 1960s.

But it is true that a fair amount of the words that Americans and Canadians use, that are not common in the U.K. still have their origins in the mother country.

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Nerd
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 03:59 PM

Ha, I know it was ust a typo, blackcatter, but to speak of sexual matters as "a visible explosion in the pre-Victorian ear" is priceless!

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: GUEST,Blackcatter
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 04:08 PM

oops

Would that be aural sex?

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Micca
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 05:49 PM

It would certainly make you "Prick up your ears"!!! LOL

Subject: RE: BS: Who was Johnson?
From: Blackcatter
Date: 10 Jun 04 - 01:17 AM

heh.

Iwas also the one who misspelled kilt in a particularly interesting comment a few years ago.