Did someone really say that in his story? Or did samclem mean "Mailer included the sentence ’ “You’re fuggin ay,” Gallegher snorted.’ " ?
What’s the difference? Both are a quotation within a quotation.
Yeah, wasn’t he born in 1834?
In Mississippi (back in the 50’s-60’s) the expression was “fuckin’ A double clutch.” I didn’t know what that meant either, but it was fun to say.
I submit the opinion of Paul Fussell in support of the “you bet your fucking ass” theory. See his book “Wartime” which has a section on military slang in the Second World War.
I do have to admire the cojones [sp?] of both SamClem and the Chicago Reader’s website maintainers for having an article with “fuckin’” in its fuckin’ title.
My question is whether samclem was quoting Mailer, or one of his characters. So really, one is a quotation within a quotation, and the other is a quotation in a quotation in a quotation (samclem quoting Mailer quoting Gallegher versus samclem quoting Mailer quoting an unnamed character quoting Gallagher).
I’m with Cerebrus. I can’t comment on the origins of Fuckin’ A, but as of the ‘80s, I always heard that it stood for "Fuckin’ Amazing!"
Of course, there’s also the old joke about the Brooklyn Alphabet: Fuckin’ A, Fuckin’ B, Fuckin’ C…
I leave you with the story of the once regionally popular Philly band The A’s. My brother caught their show in Boston once, where they introduced themselves with, “We’re the Fuckin’ A’s!” Maybe Mike Judge was at the show…
I was reading the entry for “fuck” in Wicked Words by Hugh Rawson and it includs the phrase “fucking A-OK.” Perhaps "fucking A is a truncation of that?
I hope this cite doesn’t get p*ssed on.
About the quote within a quote. Ed and I had more than a few emails about that. I’m still spinning.
Mailer had more than one character use the phrase. But they all said it to mean “absolutely” or “you’re absolutely right.”
It would appear in the novel as
"You're fuggin ay," Red shouted.
I would guess that Mailer averaged at least two “fugs” per page in that novel. It took him more than one publisher to do it, even with the altered language.
Bishamon. Anything’s possible. My sources had no actual cite for “fucking A-OK.”
As I was around then, it was definitely very popular around 1960. It was always used as an exclamative affirmative (ie YES!). Asking around (no one under 50) about the A, I got A as in Ass as in "You bet your Ass it is! Anyone else remember the same?
This is a bit silly, but one of my high-school friends went for YEARS believing this phrase to be a directive to “fuck an egg.” It seems that at about age 13 he misheard it from some older kids, and, you know, you’re a kid–you don’t know what’s going on–you just repeat stuff. So it fell upon us, then about 17, to clue him in to what we saw as the obvious.
But then again, how obvious has it proven to be, really? None of us at the time had any better reason for it being “fuckin’ A” than the egg thing. And it appears that, for all intents and purposes, that’s still the case.
There is one thing I’m sure of, though, and that’s that Asian women have sideways vaginas.
So, to sum up what we’ve learned here, the evolution of the phrase seems to be:
- “You bet your ass!”
- Addition of meaningless intensifier: “Your bet your fuckin’ ass!”
- Abbreviation: “Fuckin’ A!”
The End.
Gosh, Walloon, that seems a little premature to declare the issue solved; case closed, as you’ve done. Yours is not a terrible theory, but it isn’t a terribly satisfying one either. And there’s no proof for it. No cite.
You seem to be building on what Samclem finished up his report with, which was an opinion that the “A” stands for “ass”. Which is certainly possible–but unsupported by facts or direct evidence so far.
And if you’re incorporating JaymesD’s comments that everyone he knew meant it to be “ass” 40 years ago, that doesn’t help, because:
A) A group of contemporaries may agree among themselves what missing word the “A” represents, but this could change from location to location, evolving usages becoming geographically isolated from one another and appearing to “everyone” to have one agreed-upon derivation.
B) It doesn’t even really matter IF ALL people 40 years ago absolutely INSISTED on one particular meaning, when the term originated 80 years ago. People have only been INFERRING it since then, unless you have some new printed evidence to the contrary. The word now represented by “A” has long since been dropped and has NEVER MADE IT INTO PRINT. That’s the point of this whole thread; inferred meanings may well evolve, but it’s the ORIGINAL phrase we’re looking for.
C) As Cecil himself said, regarding another inscrutable phrase discussed recently: quote:
Originally published by Cecil Adams
. . . I am not interested in your freaking opinions. I want facts. Since none appear to be forthcoming, we will declare this discussion closed until such time as I can go investigate myself. This is the last time I ask you guys for anything.
So He could declare the case closed, but not one of us mortal types, you see? It’s a wonder the Great One himself (no, not J. Gleason) hasn’t swept down upon us to punish us for our rampant and baseless theorizing–reducing us to dust and making his bread from our bones and all that. I guess we’re lucky it was just a Staff Report. Not that SamClem couldn’t make us into at least a nice batch of muffins himself.
Believe it or not, I think Mailer has a character repeat that in a passage in The Naked and the Dead , but it’s obvious that it was tongue-in-cheek.
The Ryan said:
I believe the distinction that The Ryan is trying to make is
Mailer had a character say, “You’re fuggin ay,” the character being Gallegher.
Not
Mailer had a character say, " ‘You’re fuggin ay,’ Gallegher snorted."
See the distinction?
This brings a number of possible mental images to mind, and while such mental images are not unpleasent to contemplate, I admit to being puzzled. To what is this supposed to refer? Is the claim that Asian labia are horizontal rather than vertical? Or that the relevant orifice supposedly runs from hip to hip in Asian women, rather than originating between the thighs? Or perhaps such ladies have their G-spots on the sides of their reproductive canals, rather than along the upper surface?
It’s simply an extension of the vulgar stereotype: “Asians have slit eyes”.
Chronos, you’re over-analyzing. I assure you that no one who believed this ever gave it that much thought (and I suspect that most of the people who repeated this never believed it in the first place).
JW Kennedy, please tell me you’re kidding.
Who needs to kid? Imbecility knows no limits.