RARA-AVIS: Birds, cigars and other flying machines

From: Etienne Borgers ( freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Date: 14 Apr 2002


As the discussion in the thread seems to be on form and not on content, let me add that the word "bird" in US slang is referring to: "1.Any man, a fellow, a guy
- the most common use". That's how "The Pocket Dictionary of American Slang
"(Pocket Books-1967) presents it.

But the 60's and 70's with the export of British pop culture made probably "bird" also accepted as "Young woman" on the other side of the Atlantic, as it was
(and still is) a very common meaning of the word in British colloquial. So, in a more recent book: "American Slang" (1987)- by Robert L. Chapman- for "bird" you will find: " a person of either sex, usually a man and often elderly".

In other languages, it is very common to find "bird"
(or equivalent words) as a slang word for penis. And … you were warned, the essay is a feminist work.

I'm not sure the above helps, but at least it 's a kind of diversion from a week I devoted to obscure French slang of the early 15th century.

E.Borgers HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

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