|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
|
old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
These speculations on the connection between the different definitions are all well, but the truth lies herein:
In Kansas City near the beginning of the twentieth century there was a young boy named William who was notoriously naughty. His father took him out in the backyard very often to punish him and the beatings were so painful that he literally rose from the ground each time he was hit. These punishments stayed with him all his life. When he grew up he became a wonderful pianist/bandleader and he immortalized the punishment in one of his songs, the Count Basie classic, "Jumpin' at the Woodshed."
I know, I know, it was bad . . .
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Faldage: I looked up Falsone. Several references to an actor playing Homicide cop, but nothing to suggest he sings, let alone as a transvestite in a female barbershop group. So no' capisco.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I think I recall another definition:
In politics, when a presidential nominee has chosen but not announced his running mate, he wants a thorough check to be sure the mate's past has no hidden "embarrassing incidents" that might be revealed during the campaign. The searching scathing background-check is called "taking him behind the woodshed", or "woodshedding".
For example, as I recall: in 1968, after Senator Eagleton was announced, it was discovered that he had been treated for a nervous breakdown. The comment was that the Democrats given their candidate a proper woodshedding.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I think I recall another definition:
In politics, when a presidential nominee has chosen but not announced his running mate, he wants a thorough check to be sure the mate's past has no hidden "embarrassing incidents" that might be revealed during the campaign. The scathing background-check is called "taking him behind the woodshed", or "woodshedding".
For example, as I recall: in 1968, after Senator Eagleton was announced, it was discovered that he had been treated for a nervous breakdown. The comment was that the Democrats hadn't given their candidate a proper woodshedding.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
two birds in hand beating bush: 1) woodshedding is first attested in the punishment sense. but to woodshed was coined in the musical sense! 1936 L. Armstrong Swing that Music 71 We used to practice together, ‘wood-shed’ as we say (from the old-time way of going out into the wood-shed to practice a new song). 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues viii. 108 I'll have to woodshed this thing awhile so I can get straight with you all. 1950 Blesh & Janis They all played Ragtime (1958) x. 203, I would hear the tunes and, to make sure, go home and ‘woodshed’ them in every key, put them in major and minor and all the ninth chords. 1968 A. Young in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) Drew's got an alto [horn].+ Drew dont hardly touch it, he too busy woodsheddin his drums. 1978 Amer. Speech 1975 L. 302 [Jargon of barber-shop singing.] Woodshed, work out the harmony parts (to a known melody) by ear; sing as a group for the first time+; improvise (an interpretation).
Hence "woodshedding" vbl. n., (a) the dispensing of punishment; (b) the practice or rehearsal of music; (c) spontaneous or improvised barber-shop singing.
1940 Amer. Speech XV. 205 Woodshedding, disciplinary action. 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues ix. 151 Instead of woodshedding, he went out after the big money with the primitive equipment he had when he started. 1955 Shapiro & Hentoff Hear me talkin' to Ya xi. 190 It was here that the term ‘woodshedding’ originated. When one of the gang wanted to rehearse his part, he would go off into the woods and practice. 1956 S. Longstreet Real Jazz xiii. 101 Bix [Beiderbecke] did plenty of woodshedding, playing alone, to some recording on the family Victrola. 1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 129 No head falsetto here but complete, out of the honest breast, a baritone voice brought over years of woodshedding up to this range. 1974 Harmonizer Jan.-Feb. 18/2 Woodshedding is not a ‘spectator sport’—only participants can fully enjoy it. 1976 Times 27 Sept. 12/4 Spontaneous barbershopping is known as woodshedding, because a woodshed is as good a place as any to burst into sudden song. 2. as I said, well nigh a year ago (or was it more), the baseball origin of southpaw certainly seems plausible. but there is that nasty citation* from 1848 to deal with. 1. A person's left hand. (In quot. 1848, a punch or blow with the left hand.) 1848 Democratic B-hoy, ‘I say, Lewy, give him a sockdologer!’ ‘Curse the Old Hoss, what a south-paw he has given me!’ 1885 Sporting Life 14 Jan. 4/3 They had always been accustomed to having their opponents hug their bases pretty close, out of respect for Morris' quick throw over to first with that south-paw of his. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §121/53 Southpaw, wrong hand or fist, the left hand or fist. 1948 Chicago Tribune 20 Apr. i. 20/5 He waved his big south~paw and ducked under the roof.
2. One who pitches or throws with the left hand; a left-handed person.
In Boxing, a southpaw leads with his right hand.
1891 Chicago Herald 24 July 6/1 The new south-paw+came to town yesterday. 1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 15 Apr. 8/5 Davis came up to bat.+ He faced the twirler right-handed. He always does with southpaws. 1932 Ring Apr. 5/2 McCoy was a slow southpaw who had proved just a good workout for Joe Chip. 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §430/10 Left-handed person,+south-paw. 1947 J. Gunther Inside U.S.A. xl. 657 Ah won't even go to the Polo Grounds unless a southpaw's pitchin'. 1951 Sport 6–12 Apr. 8/2 On the same bill, Joe Lucy, the young southpaw, meets South African lightweight Gerald Dreyer. 1955 Sci. News Let. 14 May 310/2 The family cat may have a preferred paw+, and pussy is most often a southpaw when she is not ambidextrous. 1959 Sunday Times 8 Nov. 32/6 In the ball parks all over the United States the so-called ‘diamond’, formed by the track between the bases, is always oriented to the same points of the compass, so that in whatever park a team is playing the pitcher on his mound will always have his right hand on the north side of his body; hence a left-hander is a ‘southpaw’. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 26 Mar. ii. 7/1 Rocket Rod Laver leads the greatest tennis show on earth into Boston Garden Monday night.+ The freckle-faced southpaw is the top-seeded player. 1970 H. McLeave Question of Negligence (1973) vi. 48 ‘Nobody told me he was a southpaw.’ Even the psychiatrist had+forgotten that the surgeon cut with his left hand. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 26 June 1-b/2 The 6–0 lefthander, the only southpaw listed on the Angels' roster, struck out six and walked the same number. 1976 ‘A. Burgess’ Beard's Roman Women (1977) v. 110 Donatella, a south~paw, animated this [sc. her left shoulder-blade] while lifting the one remaining chair from the front room. 1978 M. Kenyon Deep Pocket ix. 103 He wore shorts and boxing gloves. ‘'E's a southpaw,’ Peckover said.
3. attrib. or as adj. Left-handed; also transf., left-footed, and fig.
1891 Cricket 29 Oct. 463/1 The Germantown man returned the ball like a flash to the wicket, and the ‘south-paw’ batsman was run out. 1932 J. T. Farrell Young Lonigan iii. 126 It was swell for Studs to play,+knowing he had made that good kick,+to run back and pick one of Helen's southpaw kicks out of the air. 1949 Sun (Baltimore) 3 June 18/8 They would have been bunched against southpaw pitching. 1957 R. Watson-Watt Three Steps to Victory xliii. 245 This was, however, a south-paw kind of compliment. 1969 New Scientist 6 Nov. 277/2 Jack Bodell has just become the first south~paw heavyweight champion in British boxing history.
* http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?SourceIndex-
=People&IndexText=Cass,%20Lewis&UniqueID=80&Year=1848
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
>do some woodshedding, said suggestion usually being made
because he or she sucks.
As opposed to blows???
TEd
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I didn't expect to get taken to the woodshed
because of my ignorance of music.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
Drew dont hardly touch it, he too busy woodsheddin his drums.
And yet this particular citation also seems to take it back more squarely to the meaning of a beating - it can stand in this sentence for a direct and colourful alternative to beating, I reckon.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I tole you bout getting a better dictionary, Dr. Bill.
Mine fell through a time warp from the 22nd century.
Falsetto < false + -etto dimin. suffix.
Artificially high in a singer's voice. Typically used for a bass or baritone singing in an alto range by means of suppressing vibration in half of the vocal cords.
Falsone < false + -one augment. suffix.
Artificially low in a singer's voice. Typically used for an alto or mezzosoprano singing in a bass range by means of thickening the vocal cords.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Drew dont hardly touch it, he too busy woodsheddin his drums.
take it back more squarely to the meaning of a beating
Oh, I dunno. You got more of the quote handy? Drew don't hardly touch what? I can see this as being purely practice and the sense of beating the drums just coincidental.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,330
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
1,577
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
