Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?

Subject: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 08:14 AM

tie my bonnet - Euphemism for marriage? I seem to have a strong recollection of this, but only found vague reference on line, anyone know this from a song or family story, as a euphemism of any kind?
Cheers
lor

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 08:15 AM

PS Different from the Quaker term, set my cap... for intentions on a fellow... cheers again, lor

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: greg stephens
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 08:18 AM

Possibly related to
"And I tied up my sleeve
for to buckle her shoe" ?

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 08:35 AM

In that same sence, but I need a direct quote... really spesific to tieing a bonet. thanks Greg. Cheers lor

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: InOBU
Date: 10 Mar 05 - 07:01 PM

refresh...

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Mar 05 - 08:48 PM

Tie the knot is an old one (is it the Orthodox Greeks who still do it in the ceremony?).
Jump the broom (originated in slavery times, but I have heard whites say it about getting married.

Tie my bonnet- Haven't heard it applied to marriage and not in my slang or historical usage books. A mistake for tying apron strings?

Some other usages (all American; I don't have UK references except the Oxford English Dictionary):

To bonnet- hit someone over the head
To bonnet- to pull the wool over someone's eyes (hoodwink)
To have a bee in one's bonnet
He was off his bonnet (wrong, or insane)
Here's your bonnet- (get out!)
Keep it under your bonnet (don't talk about it)
He blew his bonnet
etc.

Closest I found is- The place where one hangs his bonnet, i. e. one's home and family.

Digression: In the late 18th c., "old hat" originated with reference to a woman's privates- because they were so often felt. From Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, ca. 1785.

Many other meanings to bonnet, but they don't apply to headgear (Decoy, assistants in a gambling establishment, an addition to a sail, ---).

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 10 Mar 05 - 10:02 PM

Jumping the broom (or besom) was a term used in Britain for "unofficial" marriage; also "marrying over the broomstick". I don't
have date references, so may be wrong; but I think that these predate US usage and "slavery times". The term seems to have
persisted longer here among Travellers, though formerly more widespread in the general community.

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Mar 05 - 11:48 PM

Jumping the broom, broomstick, besom, turns out to be a tough one to pin down. In Britain, a jump or jumped marriage (hasty or what we would call common law now) goes way back, but the earliest English reference I can find to jumping the broomstick is Macauley 1824; and in American usage 1856; but in both cases the authors use it familiarly and one suspects it is much older.
Since in the States it probably would be the slave owners applying the term, it could well have an English origin.

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Mar 05 - 02:05 PM

Thanks friends. I did find one odd reference to tie the bonnet as a reference to marriage... but I don't have the document, just an odd refrence to it in a list of documents...
cheers
lor

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: JohnB
Date: 11 Mar 05 - 04:07 PM

Having been to one Wicca "marriage" ceremony, they did a part where the couple jumped over a broom. Probably just a recreation using the old tradition. I will have to check when I see one of my so inclined friends.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Folklore: tie my bonnet - Euphemism?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Mar 05 - 01:12 PM

I checked Gargoyle's favorite reference, "Historical Dictionary of American Slang" by Lighter, and found nothing on 'jump the broom' that is not in the dictionaries, i. e. the 1856 date that I quoted previously. The reference by Macaulay was not mentioned (English, but has a direct bearing on the American usage).
Not the only time that I have been disappointed by this compendium.