# Funny lines to modern readers in old books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 4, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390 "2006-06-04T17:53:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/41 "2006-06-07T16:53:13Z")
In “The Crack-Up,” F. Scott Fitzgerald writes: > [@](#): > > Like most Middle Westerners, I have never had any but the vaguest race prejudices – I always had a secret yen for the lovely Scandinavian blondes who sat on porches in St. Paul… “Race” in those days was an all-inclusive term for every category of humanity that wasn’t white and anglo-saxon or german. Jews were a race and so were Hungarians and Poles. But the thought of lovely Scandinavian blondes as being the target of race prejudice by whites pegs the irony meter. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/42 "2006-06-07T17:20:15Z")
That was in the days when a “mixed marriage” was between an Irish Catholic and a Polish Catholic. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/43 "2006-06-07T18:27:50Z")
I haven’t read the book “Bang the Drum Slowly”, but in there’s a phrase in the 1974 movie which I suspect may have been in the 1956 novel. Several characters use the phrase, “eat out” to describe cussing someone out. Coach Dutch reminds pitcher Henry Wiggen that he didn’t used to be so fond of bumbling catcher Pearson, whose defense Wiggen is coming to: “You ate him out as much as any of us!” I almost spilled my drink the first time I heard that! I have seen a slightly less archaic version: “chew out”, which may be a bowdlerzation. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/44 "2006-06-07T22:02:02Z")
From a Nero Wolfe short story collection called “Three For the Chair,” copyrighted in 1957, in the story “Too Many Detectives” we have this quote from Archie Goodwin: It was a very enjoyable meal, and before it was over I had conceded I would have to make an exception on she-dicks. (He’s talking about a female detective, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2006, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/45 "2006-06-07T22:42:08Z")
Don’t forget Hans Brinker with the little boy sticking his finger in the dike. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/46 "2006-06-08T03:25:41Z")
I could swear I’ve posted this before, but I was reading “Roughing It” by Twain and there was a phrase that I don’t remember exactly now, but went something like “and then a rabbit began to hump himself” but in fairness it might’ve been “a rabbit began humping” in any event, it led to some hilarity among the middle schoolers present. ---
**Author:** ![hawksgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ed655f/32.png) [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/47 "2006-06-08T03:50:58Z")
I just finished Don Quixote, and in one of the last scenes, the Don was said to have ejaculated to heaven and his fair lady Dulcina de Toboso, which seemed inappropriate considering his fidelity and modesty. I tried not to giggle, as I was in a room of serious studiers. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/48 "2006-06-08T04:10:58Z")
[QUOTE=ddgryphon] I could swear I’ve posted this before, but I was reading “Roughing It” by Twain and there was a phrase that I don’t remember exactly now [/QUOTE] Here it is, describing how Twain’s party hunted a jackass rabbit: > [@](#): > > Our party made this specimen “hump himself,” as the conductor said. The secretary started him with a shot from the Colt; I commenced spitting at him with my weapon; and all in the same instant the old “Allen’s” whole broadside let go with a rattling crash, and it is not putting it too strong to say that the rabbit was frantic! He dropped his ears, set up his tail, and left for San Francisco at a speed which can only be described as a flash and a vanish! Long after he was out of sight we could hear him whiz. He said “whiz”! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/49 "2006-06-08T05:33:24Z")
Back in high school, 19th century characters being “fagged out” earned a lot of laughs. Yeah, I’d be tired, too! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/50 "2006-06-08T06:03:23Z")
Actually, those two definitions of “fag” are related. “To fag” is “to do something that wearies one; to work hard; to labour, strain, toil” (Oxford English Dictionary). At some private schools in 18th- and 19th-century England, seniors were assigned juniors as servants, and these were called “fags” from the “toil” sense. The word eventually gained the sexual connotation from sexual exploitation of those younger servants. ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/51 "2006-06-08T06:12:01Z")
Which of course made it doubly funny when it was the horses that got fagged out. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/52 "2006-06-08T07:14:20Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Actually, those two definitions of “fag” are related. “To fag” is “to do something that wearies one; to work hard; to labour, strain, toil” (Oxford English Dictionary). At some private schools in 18th- and 19th-century England, seniors were assigned juniors as servants, and these were called “fags” from the “toil” sense. The word eventually gained the sexual connotation from sexual exploitation of those younger servants. [/QUOTE] I’d be interested to hear a cite from a reputable etymological source for that… Roald Dahl makes extensive use of the term “Fag” and “Fagging” in this sense in his autobiography _Boy_, which is a tad jarring for the modern reader… ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2006, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390/53 "2006-06-08T07:19:57Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] I’d be interested to hear a cite from a reputable etymological source for that… [/QUOTE] It’s in the Oxford English Dictionary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-lines-to-modern-readers-in-old-books/359390.md?page=2)