Leave It to Beaver, Barbara Billingsley’s classic line “Ward you were hard on the Beaver last night” is television history.
I’ve read interviews where the show’s creator claims he had no idea that beaver was a naughty word. Was this a inside joke or not? That the show slipped by the censors? But Hugh Beaumont held a Master of Theology degree. Hard to imagine a guy his age felt comfortable calling his son The Beaver. Especially in 1957.
When did beaver become a raunchy word? Even Beaver college gave up the fight and changed their name.
I know *Beaver *magazine was sold in the 70’s. It was explicit but not hardcore (no guys featured with the women). Not sure when this magazine began publishing. maybe the 1960’s? Thats a good indication that the word was already a sex reference just a few years after the show ended. http://oldmags.com/issue/Beaver-April-1976
The beavers are part of cub scouting and Boy Scouting. So, there was a time it was an innocent word. Hopefully Girl Scouts don’t call themselves The Beavers. that would be… unfortunate.
Just as “gay” had its secondary meaning way back but was not commonly used until the 1930s or so, I’d bet that this obscure origin doesn’t really indicate when the word became common American vernacular. I’d bet on any ngram or such showing a rise in usage right around the late 1950s, when it could still be used innocently by a slightly un-hep production crew, just as gay was used in its old sense well into the 1970s.
Joseph Wambaugh was using the term in the early 1970s, so that probably represents some leading edge of 1960s use when he was still a cop.
In Breakfast of Champions, published in 1973, Vonnegut takes the time to explain what a beaver is in this sense. FWIW, he attributes it to newsmen using it as a code, so that they could alert others to look up a woman’s skirt and get a glimpse while she’s descending fire escapes, etc.
No way of knowing if his etymology is correct, but the fact that in 1973, he has to explain what a beaver is suggests to me that it was in current usage, but there was a chance that it might not be apparent to every reader. Then again, IIRC, he also explained what an asshole is, so who knows.
I’m pretty sure that was the first time I was aware of this use of the term - beaver, that is - and I would have been in my teens when I read it.
Jim Bouton also goes to some lengths to explain the term in the original* Ball Four* - in the context of ballplayers sneaking around roofs to catch sight of naked women in other hotel rooms. “Beaver-shooting” was the code phrase, in at least 1969-70. As you say, having to explain it to what can be assumed to be a hip male audience in 1970-71 indicates it was not all that widely used.
It’s possible Bouton’s editors made him explain it, though; they may not have been as in touch with the slang as Bouton’s readers. He also says in Ball Four that they would go
“beaver shooting” from the bullpen during games, using a pair of binoculars to spot them in the stands; and if challenged by the umpires, who suspected them of stealing signs, they could get off the hook by saying they were shooting beaver. That suggests at the least a familiarity with the word throughout baseball.
If you want to nitpick the precise definition of buck teeth, let’s just say that he had fairly large front incisors, as shown in the photo I linked to. See also here and here.
Now they may not have been extraordinarily large, but the assumption that the nickname might have been based on large front teeth was not implausible.
Well most people don’t realize that the beaver hair is composed of two significantly different textures. One being the out corse “wooly” outer hair that acts as a water resistant coat and the smooth inner hair that keeps the beaver warm. When you shave the ruff outer hair from the beaver you have what is one of the smoothest furs know to man, the shaved beaver muff. Well, maybe the second smoothest fur muff.
Note that link claims: The fur is very velvety-soft to the touch. Fur is thick and plush with no musty smells. I’m thinking that trappers in the old days were on to this.
I have a long-sleeved beaver pullover and we also have a beaver blanket. I attest that the fur is incredibly soft and sleek - also almost unbelievably warm. Too warm for me unless the weather is really cold.
My sweetie (who is 5’ to my 6’3" and quite cold averse) uses it as a beaver midi-dress during the winter.
BTW, apropos of pretty much everything and nothing - I’m Native American.
A childhood friend of mine was named Steve, but nicknamed Beaver. He was born in '67, and when he was very young, somewhere along the line, the name “Stever the Beaver” came into being, which was shortened to Beaver.
By the time he was 5 or 6, in the early 70s, everyone called him Beaver, both adults and kids, and there was never any sense of discomfort with it (which lends some credence to Amateur Barbarian’s cite of Jim Bouton)…OTOH, we’re talking about pretty square middle-class folks in suburban Chicago, so I suppose that it’s not surprising that no one in Beaver’s circle of family or friends knew the slang term.
But, by the late 70s, the other meaning of the word became pretty well-known, and he suddenly was just Steve.
Was this a inside joke or not? That the show slipped by the censors? But Hugh Beaumont held a Master of Theology degree. Hard to imagine a guy his age felt comfortable calling his son The Beaver. Especially in 1957.
