[PW] Original of term "sorebacks"

[Bye, Dan J]

>From HL Mencken's "Some Opprobrious Nicknames", published in American Speech, vol 24 (1), February 1949, pp.25-30:

"Shankle reports that they [Virginians] have also been called Sorebacks, in sportive reference to the legend that they 'are so hospitable that they slap one another on the backs until their backs become sore.'  As a matter of fact, Virginians are a somewhat austere and undemonstrative people, and show little of the exuberant affability of a Midwestern Rotarian or Kiwanian. They sing only when in their cups and slap backs only at election time."

The reference to Shankle is: George Earl Shankle's "American Nicknames" (New York, 1937).

Dan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org 
> [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On 
> Behalf Of Jeanne Schramm
> Sent: 30 October 2007 00:57
> To: list at project-wombat.org
> Subject: Re: [PW] Original of term "sorebacks"
> 
> Here is another theory from Roy Wilder's "You all spoken 
> here" (1998) http://tinyurl.com/3y5kby
> 
> On 10/29/07, Diane Rainaud <drainaud at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > I'm hoping someone here might know the origin of a term used when 
> > referring to Virginians..."sorebacks".  In an Internet 
> search I found 
> > a slang dictionary which says the terms comes from the 
> hospitality of 
> > Virginians and their backslapping greetings which cause sore backs.
> >
> >
> >
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