souped up jitney

[Harrison Hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4

"They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale,
The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale."

We'd have had then (and now) a "refrigerator" (fridge) and "furnished an
apartment" (scansion permitting).

"They had a hi-fi phono" We had "hi-fi" (high fidelity) but "phono"
was my grandmother's "gramophone" (phonogragh) for playing 78s. 45's (sic)
you played on a "record player" or (if you were lucky) a "radiogram" (which
is a mono stereogram). Later a "music centre" which also played
"cassettes".

Whatever is a "souped up jitney"? I can Google it myself, but I'm going
to spend a bit of time trying to figure it out :)

[Tony Cooper]

Roebuck would be Sears, Roebuck & Company. Sears sold sets of
furniture as well as individual pieces. A two-room set would be
something like a couch, one or two chairs, and end tables for the
living room and a bed, dresser, and night table for the bedroom.
Variations, of course. Lamps might be included.

A Coolerator was a brand sold between 1908 and 1954. It was a
combination of an ice box and a mechanical cooler. It used block ice
and a mechanical coolant dispenser. It was the poor person's
refridgerator.

I would understand a "hi-fi phono" to be a turntable that was part of
a hi-fi system with separate components. A record player was all one
unit, but a hi-fi system used a turntable component and better
speakers.

"Souped-up", when referring to an automobile, means modified in some
way to improve performance. The couple in the song is a young couple,
and for the male to soup-up his car would not be unusual.

The song was composed in the early 1960s when Chuck Berry was in
prison, but not released until 1964. Evidently, "jitney" is a term
that Berry used to mean any "automobile". There are other meanings
for "jitney" that are more specialized.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

[GordonD]

On 07/09/2015 16:25, Harrison Hill wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4
>
> "They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale,
> The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale."
>
> We'd have had then (and now) a "refrigerator" (fridge) and "furnished an
> apartment" (scansion permitting).
>
> "They had a hi-fi phono" We had "hi-fi" (high fidelity) but "phono"
> was my grandmother's "gramophone" (phonogragh) for playing 78s. 45's (sic)
> you played on a "record player" or (if you were lucky) a "radiogram" (which
> is a mono stereogram). Later a "music centre" which also played
> "cassettes".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoPXQ9fotZM

--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

[Rich Ulrich]

On Mon, 07 Sep 2015 12:14:21 -0400, Tony Cooper
<tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>A Coolerator was a brand sold between 1908 and 1954. It was a
>combination of an ice box and a mechanical cooler. It used block ice
>and a mechanical coolant dispenser. It was the poor person's
>refridgerator.
>
>I would understand a "hi-fi phono" to be a turntable that was part of
>a hi-fi system with separate components. A record player was all one
>unit, but a hi-fi system used a turntable component and better
>speakers.

I read that as simple redundancy for some sort of (pre-stereo)
record player.

I was young in the 1950s, and I'm pretty sure that I did not
know what distinction "hi-fi" was drawing, what units it
distinguished between: because I still do not know. I think
I did hear that term in those days, and assumed, "record
player".

It was many years later (college, about 1967) before I saw,
in person, a system with separate components.

Ah, yes, Wikip < high fidelity > says,
"In the 1950s, hi-fi became a generic term, to some
extent displacing phonograph and record player."
And "hi-fi" seems to mean, at least, not 78s and not AM radio.

"Phonograph" seems to exist as a generic term that could
include an old wind-up player of 78s.

--
Rich Ulrich

[quia...@yahoo.com]

Seems like it should be called "phonogram reader/player".

--
John

[David Kleinecke]

I was in the Navy's Eddy Program during WW II and we were being taught
how to repair the Navy's electronic equipment. The instructors in the
course were what would now be recognized as computer geeks. Only in those
days they were all into hi-fi audio - all hand-made, of course. They
showed us some very impressive examples of hi-fi.

Naturally when computers came along, soon after the war they all changed
their focus to computers and, just like the MIT model railroad club,
they jumped into the new technology.

[Ross]

Exemplary answer -- concise, informative and accurate.

I guess I knew most of that, but I had always assumed that
"coolerator" was CB's creation.

The etymology of "jitney" seems to be utterly unknown*. It appears
earliest [1903] in the sense of a nickel (5 cents), then a
little later in phrases like "jitney bus" for a type of public
transport charging that fare. I think it has spent most
of its career referring to public transport vehicles, but
Wentworth & Flexner note the sense "any automobile, esp. a
small or cheap one" from the 1930s, which is the one we need here.

*The first OED citation is specifically about local slang
in St.Louis. Can we imagine our way down the river and contemplate
a connection with French "jeton", a token (maybe also a
poker chip?). It's a long reach, but what else have we got?

[Don Phillipson]

"Harrison Hill" <harrison...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:5466cf3a-dfc1-4b77...@googlegroups.com...
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4
> . . .

> Whatever is a "souped up jitney"? I can Google it myself, but I'm going
> to spend a bit of time trying to figure it out :)

Americanisms: a jitney is an automobile (or small truck)
plying for trade as a passenger-carrying bus (often a one-man
unincorporated business.) Souped-up = increased, commonly
used for a car engine adapted to produce more horsepower:
as used by bootleggers and later NASCAR racers.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Tony Cooper]

Your definition is correct, but not applicable to the question as
posed. The question - and the usage - is about a song written in 1960
about a teenaged couple and their possessions.

One is a "soup-up jitney, 'twas a cherry red '53". It's obvious that
Chuck Berry was not writing about a car for hire or a car intended to
be used for hire. The next line has them driving down to New Orleans
in the car to celebrate their anniversary.

Evidently, Berry uses "jitney" to describe any automobile.

Note: The link spells it "soup-up", but this is probably just a typo.
It's "souped-up" normally.

[Harrison Hill]

"Souped up" was normal 60s BrE. I suppose then in BrE this translates into "a souped up old banger"; a cheap car, that isn't worth improving, with is nevertheless (teenage-boy style) improved somehow. We used to climb over the fence into the local dump (a place where refuse was dumped, later to be covered over with soil; left for a few years to rot down, then reutilised), and "find" things with which to improve our cars. See if you can guess which bit from "the dump" improved this car? http://i.imgsafe.org/7c82175.jpg

[Harrison Hill]

...which is...

[Tony Cooper]

That is not the meaning in AmE. "Souped-up", to us, just means
improvements made to the engine that increase the car's speed.
Any car could be souped-up, regardless of age or condition.

In the 50s and 60s, the cars most likely to be souped-up were older
cars, but only because they were less expensive to purchase by the
person who was doing the souping-up. They were worth improving.

[Harrison Hill]

The same meaning then. You'd flare the wheels to make it wider, so it could corner faster; but that meant tearing out the wheel arches. A twin carb instead of a single carb; maybe fuel injection. Minor tweaks but stuff that any enthusiastic teenager could do. At the end of it you'd have a car that was worthless to start with; and only worth dismantling to finish with. If you "built your own car" you could have this 23 litre Rolls Royce. You certainly heard this one coming :) http://i.imgsafe.org/7e6aaa2.jpg

[Tony Cooper]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 09:49:17 -0700 (PDT), Harrison Hill

Not really the same. "Souped-up" meant engine performance changes.
Any bodywork was "customizing". A 1949 Mercury (The "Rebel Without A
Cause" car) that was souped-up and customized would have engine
improvements and body changes like being "chopped" or "channeled".

[Harrison Hill]

"Chopped" and "channelled" (sic) I don't recognise. Otherwise I can go
with that. "Customised" meant the look, "souped-up" meant the power, in
BrE also. Two-tone metal-flake on the TVR was a noticeable innovation :)

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Tony Cooper skrev:

> Not really the same. "Souped-up" meant engine performance changes.
> Any bodywork was "customizing".

Is it still used, or has "pimping" taken over?

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Pablo]

Tony Cooper wrote:

> That is not the meaning in AmE. "Souped-up", to us, just means
> improvements made to the engine that increase the car's speed.
> Any car could be souped-up, regardless of age or condition.

<slight swerve>

Funny that here they've taken the word "tuning" and absorbed it into Spanish
to mean any sort of "improvement" (including things like go-faster stripes).

They also changed the spelling to "tunning".

--

Pablo

http://www.ipernity.com/home/313627
https://paulc.es/
https://asetrad.org

[Tony Cooper]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 19:30:09 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
<gade...@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

>Tony Cooper skrev:
>
>> Not really the same. "Souped-up" meant engine performance changes.
>> Any bodywork was "customizing".
>
>Is it still used, or has "pimping" taken over?

I'm out of touch with teenager slang, but "pimped" and "pimped out" is
usually understood to mean modified by an African American owner. The
most common "pimped out" look is changing the wheel rims to larger,
fancier rims and those spinner things. I suppose it would also
include the installaton of a sound system that would serve Yankee
Stadium.

White youths readily adopt black slang today, though, so I may be
wrong.

[Tony Cooper]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2015 10:13:41 -0700 (PDT), Harrison Hill

"Chopped" means lowering the roof and "Channeled" means lowering the
body. This car has been chopped and channeled:

http://www.americandreamcars.com/1930fordchoppedchanneledsr0812.jpg

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Tony Cooper skrev:

> I'm out of touch with teenager slang, but "pimped" and "pimped out" is
> usually understood to mean modified by an African American owner. The
> most common "pimped out" look is changing the wheel rims to larger,
> fancier rims and those spinner things. I suppose it would also
> include the installaton of a sound system that would serve Yankee
> Stadium.

I learned the word from a couple of computer games with car
racing in cities. The more races you win, the more new gear you
can afford.

I know of the origin of the word and thus the link to African
Americans, but seeing it in a computer game seemed to suggest
that is was in common use.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Don Phillipson]

"Tony Cooper" <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ffrtua9rl72jtck9m...@4ax.com...

> Your definition is correct, but not applicable to the question as
> posed. The question - and the usage - is about a song written in 1960
> about a teenaged couple and their possessions.
>
> One is a "soup-up jitney, 'twas a cherry red '53". It's obvious that
> Chuck Berry was not writing about a car for hire or a car intended to
> be used for hire. The next line has them driving down to New Orleans
> in the car to celebrate their anniversary.
>
> Evidently, Berry uses "jitney" to describe any automobile.

This must be a familiar problem for poets. Jalopy might have
been the word in mind, with one too many syllables.

[bill van]

In article <msn8ee$ftv$1...@dont-email.me>,

Bertel Lund Hansen <gade...@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

It is quite common in Canadian English in recent years, and most of the
time it is used without any apparent thought about its origins and
racial connotations.
--
bill

[Tony Cooper]

If you playing a computer game, you are not doing what is common to
all. People who play computer games are a subset, and there may be
common use in that subset that is not common to all.

[Robert Bannister]

On 8/09/2015 7:50 am, Rich Ulrich wrote:
> On Mon, 07 Sep 2015 12:14:21 -0400, Tony Cooper
> <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> A Coolerator was a brand sold between 1908 and 1954. It was a
>> combination of an ice box and a mechanical cooler. It used block ice
>> and a mechanical coolant dispenser. It was the poor person's
>> refridgerator.
>>
>> I would understand a "hi-fi phono" to be a turntable that was part of
>> a hi-fi system with separate components. A record player was all one
>> unit, but a hi-fi system used a turntable component and better
>> speakers.
>
> I read that as simple redundancy for some sort of (pre-stereo)
> record player.
>
> I was young in the 1950s, and I'm pretty sure that I did not
> know what distinction "hi-fi" was drawing, what units it
> distinguished between: because I still do not know. I think
> I did hear that term in those days, and assumed, "record
> player".
>
> It was many years later (college, about 1967) before I saw,
> in person, a system with separate components.
>
> Ah, yes, Wikip < high fidelity > says,
> "In the 1950s, hi-fi became a generic term, to some
> extent displacing phonograph and record player."

I only recall "hi-fi" referring to the amplifier and speakers which
might have joined to the (stereo or not) record player and/or the tape deck.

--
Robert Bannister
Perth, Western Australia

[Robert Bannister]

Later, young people discovered that painting a red line over the top or
down the sides of the car made it go faster.

[Robert Bannister]

On 9/09/2015 4:42 am, Tony Cooper wrote:

> If you playing a computer game, you are not doing what is common to
> all. People who play computer games are a subset, and there may be
> common use in that subset that is not common to all.
>

Who're you calling a subset? Respect!

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Robert Bannister skrev:

> I only recall "hi-fi" referring to the amplifier and speakers which
> might have joined to the (stereo or not) record player and/or the tape deck.

"Hi-fi" in Denmark was an unspecified quality designation that
could be applied to any sound-producing or -transmitting device.
The word did not change its meaning. The items kept their usual
names.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Tony Cooper skrev:

>>I know of the origin of the word and thus the link to African
>>Americans, but seeing it in a computer game seemed to suggest
>>that is was in common use.

> If you playing a computer game, you are not doing what is common to
> all. People who play computer games are a subset, and there may be
> common use in that subset that is not common to all.

With no facts at all to back it up, my guess is that this subset
in Denmark is pretty much the whole population except for most of
those at my age and older. I include the game apps available for
smartphones.

That is not to say that they all have tried car racing games, and
the word "pimping" is not commonly understood as it became
obvious in a thread about the word in the Danish language group.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

In BrE "the Hi-Fi" was the complete system of record player and/or tape
deck and radio tuner (if present) and the amplifier(s) and probably the
speakers.


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Peter Duncanson [BrE] skrev:

>>"Hi-fi" in Denmark was an unspecified quality designation that
>>could be applied to any sound-producing or -transmitting device.
>>The word did not change its meaning. The items kept their usual
>>names.

> In BrE "the Hi-Fi" was the complete system of record player
> and/or tape deck and radio tuner (if present) and the
> amplifier(s) and probably the speakers.

That would be a hifi-system in Denmark.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Peter T. Daniels]

There were two magazines in the 1950s-60s, *High Fidelity* and *HiFi
Review*, both of which mostly contained reviews of classical music LPs and
articles on classical music, with some attention to the equipment for
playing them on. *High Fidelity* was a bit more highbrow. Somewhere along
the way, *HiFi Review* changed its name to *HiFi Stereo Review* (I remember
wondering when *High Fidelity* would become *Stereophonic Sound*), and then
*Stereo Review*.

I lost interest when popular music reviews essentially usurped the space
formerly dedicated to classical reviews.

Hmm, it's still around (sort of):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_%26_Vision_(magazine)

[charles]

In article <46f3497b-29ed-4ef6...@googlegroups.com>, Peter

I stopped reading when the best of the UK magazines "HiFi News" told me
that a gold plated mains plug improved the stereo separation.

--
Please note new email address:
cha...@CandEhope.me.uk

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 9:33:47 AM UTC-4, charles wrote:
> In article <46f3497b-29ed-4ef6...@googlegroups.com>, Peter
> T. Daniels <gram...@verizon.net> wrote:
> > On Wednesday, September 9, 2015 at 7:33:30 AM UTC-4, Bertel Lund Hansen
> > wrote:
> > > Peter Duncanson [BrE] skrev:

> > > > In BrE "the Hi-Fi" was the complete system of record player and/or
> > > > tape deck and radio tuner (if present) and the amplifier(s) and
> > > > probably the speakers.
> > > That would be a hifi-system in Denmark.
> > There were two magazines in the 1950s-60s, *High Fidelity* and *HiFi
> > Review*, both of which mostly contained reviews of classical music LPs
> > and articles on classical music, with some attention to the equipment
> > for playing them on. *High Fidelity* was a bit more highbrow. Somewhere
> > along the way, *HiFi Review* changed its name to *HiFi Stereo Review* (I
> > remember wondering when *High Fidelity* would become *Stereophonic
> > Sound*), and then *Stereo Review*.
> > I lost interest when popular music reviews essentially usurped the space
> > formerly dedicated to classical reviews.

I was going to mention that they seemed to want to be like *Gramophone*,
but *Gramophone* (besides being very expensive because it was imported)
had tiny type and no page margins, making it hard to read at best. Plus
the records it reviewed were often not available in the US.

> I stopped reading when the best of the UK magazines "HiFi News" told me
> that a gold plated mains plug improved the stereo separation.

I think both of them had "exposés" of the false claims of the superiority of
gold connectors. Actual double-blind scientific A-B tests and all that.

[Jerry Friedman]

Delete "it", and I'd prefer a comma after "understood".

I think "pimp" for "decorate" is very widely understood in America,
though there may be an age limit in the 70s or higher.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Jerry Friedman skrev:

>> That is not to say that they all have tried car racing games, and
>> the word "pimping" is not commonly understood as it became
>> obvious in a thread about the word in the Danish language group.

> Delete "it", and I'd prefer a comma after "understood".

Points taken.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

I used to get the UK publication "Hi-Fi News". That dealt with Hi-Fi
equipment. It later merged with "Record Review" and became "Hi-Fi News &
Record Review".

http://www.hifinews.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_News_%26_Record_Review

[Tony Cooper]

I don't think "decorate" is a very good word for the meaning of
"pimp". To "pimp out" something is to add things that add to the
appearance of the vehicle (in the eyes of the owner of the vehicle),
but exceed what we normally think of as decorations.

Further, decoration doesn't normally include structural changes. When
a hydraulic suspension system is added to an automobile, it can be
part of the pimping out process.

This is what I'm referring to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilVp5aLYW8g

[Ross]

I was almost shocked to come across it yesterday in the London Review
of Books, in a review of a book about the British Royal Family during
the abdication crisis and its aftermath -- here referring to
the Duke of Kent during the War:

His wife, the popular Princess Marina of Greece, was reluctantly
coaxed into a Wrens uniform, which she pimped with high heels and low necklines, to the delight of the reporters who followed her everywhere.

[Robert Bannister]

Or "sound system".

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Tony Cooper skrev:

> Further, decoration doesn't normally include structural changes. When
> a hydraulic suspension system is added to an automobile, it can be
> part of the pimping out process.

It can also involve installing coloured neon lights under the
car.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Ross skrev:

[a quote]

> His wife, the popular Princess Marina of Greece, was
> reluctantly coaxed into a Wrens uniform, which she pimped with
> high heels and low necklines, to the delight of the reporters
> who followed her everywhere.

That certainly is an ... unusual use of the word.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Ross]

Yes. And looking at photos like this,

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw143597/Princess-Marina-Duchess-of-Kent

I am trying to figure out just how low necklines could have come into it.

[Cheryl]

Maybe she was like the schoolgirls back in the days when school uniforms
were more common here. They dressed very primly for photographs and when
under the teacher's eye, but at other times hiked up their skirts and
unfastened some of the top buttons of their blouses. Of course, this
operation required loosening or removing the tie, if that was part of
the uniform.

--
Cheryl

[Janet]

In article <d5d590...@mid.individual.net>, cper...@med.mun.ca
says...

In 1939 the WRNS, which had long been disbanded, was revived to serve in
WW2 and Marina was appointed as its Commandant (So much for being
"reluctantly coaxed into its uniform"). Her husband had a

She was 34, hardly a schoolgirl.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/duchess-of-kent-speak-on-w-r-n-
s/query/Marina

Janet

[Cheryl]

Many adults may behave like schoolchildren.

--
Cheryl

[Charles Bishop]

In article <msreh3$q72$1...@dont-email.me>,

Bertel Lund Hansen <gade...@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

I rather like that look, but began wondering. There's no much you can do
to a car (personal opinion only) to make it look better than when it
comes off the showroom floor. (Reconsidering personal opinion, pressing
on anyway) But, adding things like the colored neon lights made me think
of spacecraft, and how, with new, undiscovered technology, there might
be effects such as glowing lights here and there as the N,UT is used.
Perhaps the glowing lights are meant to reflect this.

I recall that we, as children, did similar things to our bicycles. Ones
I remember are strips of colored plastic (streamers) that could be
attached to the handlebars on the rubber grips that covered the ends.
Made me feel special, I think. Also, the playing cards attached to the
frame that made a brrrrrt noise as the spokes caught the playing cards
as the bicycle moved.

charles, Still not sure of personal opinion but posting anyway.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Charles Bishop skrev:

Judging from what I have seen in the computer games, I don't like
pimped cars. I can admire a beautiful paint job, but there are
also ugly ones around.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Robin Bignall]

I'm reminded of that weird device that jumped the car up and down in
"Breaking Bad". What was that all about?
--
Robin Bignall
Herts, England (BrE)

[Robin Bignall]

On Wed, 9 Sep 2015 14:59:19 -0700 (PDT), Ross <benl...@ihug.co.nz>
wrote:

I would have thought the correct word for decorating in that manner is
primp, not pimp. Another eggcorn?

[Tony Cooper]

I didn't watch "Breaking Bad", but those cars that jump up and down
have a hydraulic system installed that does this. I posted a link to
a short video on this a day or so ago.

Here it is again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilVp5aLYW8g

I see them on the street once in a while around here, but most aren't
quite as bouncy as this one.

It's not really new. Remember the Citroën DS and the XM? As early as
1955 the DS's had a hydaulic system that raised and lowered the body.
It could be lowered to be more aerodynamic at speed. It didn't
bounce, but it did move up and down.

Citroën called it a "hydropneumatic suspension".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8okf0kya_w

[Ross]

That occurred to me, too. It would certainly fit better with the
historical context. But who exactly is corning the eggs, and how?

[Robin Bignall]

What is the point of them? You surely can't drive while the thing is
bouncing.

>It's not really new. Remember the Citroën DS and the XM? As early as
>1955 the DS's had a hydaulic system that raised and lowered the body.
>It could be lowered to be more aerodynamic at speed. It didn't
>bounce, but it did move up and down.
>
>Citroën called it a "hydropneumatic suspension".
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8okf0kya_w
>

The first car that I bought new was a Citroen CX, with that sort of
suspension, but it wasn't designed to bump up and down.

[Cheryl]

I don't think so. Princess Marina might primp by adjusting her neckline
and choosing shoes, but she's not primping her neckline and shoes.

--
Cheryl

[Tony Cooper]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 21:15:47 +0100, Robin Bignall

I can't tell you what the point is because any form of pimping out a
car is beyond my comprehension. To put the money that is required to
do this into a car is unimaginable to me.

They bounce them when stopped at a light or parked where people are
watching.

Still, I don't criticize other people's weird interests. They are
likely to make snarky comments about the money I spend on photographic
equipment and processing software.

>
>>It's not really new. Remember the Citroën DS and the XM? As early as
>>1955 the DS's had a hydaulic system that raised and lowered the body.
>>It could be lowered to be more aerodynamic at speed. It didn't
>>bounce, but it did move up and down.
>>
>>Citroën called it a "hydropneumatic suspension".
>>
>>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8okf0kya_w
>>
>The first car that I bought new was a Citroen CX, with that sort of
>suspension, but it wasn't designed to bump up and down.
>>
--

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 3:49:32 PM UTC-4, Robin Bignall wrote:

> I'm reminded of that weird device that jumped the car up and down in
> "Breaking Bad". What was that all about?

The device that does it probably involves hydraulics. A car with that
ability is a "low-rider." It's favored by Mexican-American car enthusiasts
and features in many movies etc. set in East L.A.

[Ross]

That's how I've normally heard it, too -- intransitive. But OED has a
pretty solid series of attestations in transitive use, with the
object being either oneself (primp yourself up) or the particular
item that you are primping (hair, etc.). Or even:

1945 J. Steinbeck Cannery Row viii. 47 A Lee cousin primped up slightly wilted heads of lettuce the way a girl primps a loose finger wave.

[Tony Cooper]

No. A low-rider is a car that has been modified to reduce the ground
clearance as much as possible. While a low-rider could also
incorporate a hydraulic system to bounce it or lift it, most do not.

Low-riders:
http://www.marktraffic.com/all-my-friends-have-a-low-rider.php

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Robin Bignall skrev:

> I'm reminded of that weird device that jumped the car up and down in
> "Breaking Bad". What was that all about?

I don't really know, but I always imagined that it was for young
couples who are too lazy to have normal sex in a car.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Robin Bignall skrev:

> I would have thought the correct word for decorating in that
> manner is primp, not pimp. Another eggcorn?

No. The idea behind "pimp" in this sense is that a pimp is likely
to dress flashy and equip his car likewise.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Ross]

We know that. But the example we are discussing here involves not a
pimp, but a princess, some 70 years ago; and not a car, but a military
uniform, which she contrived to make, not flashy, but a little more
attractive. (She was already well known as a fashionable dresser
before the war.)
This is why the word "pimp" seems, not just anachronistic but
inappropriate. But perhaps for some younger speakers "pimp" and "primp"
are thought of as variants of a single word.

[Robin Bignall]

She's primping herself up, as Ross has mentioned.

[Robin Bignall]

On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 16:16:25 -0700 (PDT), Ross <benl...@ihug.co.nz>
wrote:

That would not surprise me.

[Robert Bannister]

On 11/09/2015 5:48 am, Tony Cooper wrote:

> I can't tell you what the point is because any form of pimping out a
> car is beyond my comprehension. To put the money that is required to
> do this into a car is unimaginable to me.

I like the ones that are fully chromium plated underneath. Obviously,
they never drive on dirty roads. Maybe the cars aren't meant to be
driven at all.

[Robert Bannister]

Some of those must leave a trail of sparks behind them along the road.

[Robert Bannister]

Better than when a husband pimps his wife.

[Peter Moylan]

On 2015-Sep-11 06:15, Robin Bignall wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 16:07:39 -0400, Tony Cooper
> <tonyco...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:49:26 +0100, Robin Bignall
>> <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>>> I'm reminded of that weird device that jumped the car up and down in
>>> "Breaking Bad". What was that all about?
>>
>> I didn't watch "Breaking Bad", but those cars that jump up and down
>> have a hydraulic system installed that does this. I posted a link to
>> a short video on this a day or so ago.
>>
>> Here it is again:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilVp5aLYW8g
>>
>> I see them on the street once in a while around here, but most aren't
>> quite as bouncy as this one.
>>
> What is the point of them? You surely can't drive while the thing is
> bouncing.

You could when I first saw them, in San Francisco in about 1980. There
was a whole line of cars going along the street while bouncing up and
down. They probably weren't being driven safely, but the drivers
obviously wanted to show off their custom modifications.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Peter Moylan skrev:

> You could when I first saw them, in San Francisco in about 1980. There
> was a whole line of cars going along the street while bouncing up and
> down. They probably weren't being driven safely, but the drivers
> obviously wanted to show off their custom modifications.

At least other drivers could see from a distance that it wouldn't
be safe to be anywhere near them.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Robin Bignall skrev:

>>> No. The idea behind "pimp" in this sense is that a pimp is likely
>>> to dress flashy and equip his car likewise.

>>We know that. But the example we are discussing here involves not a
>>pimp, but a princess, some 70 years ago;

Oh, I see now. Thanks.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Janet]

In article <bu64va55vr6cu6eb5...@4ax.com>,
docr...@ntlworld.com says...

A primpcess?

Janet

[Robin Bignall]

There's nowt so queer as folk.

[Robin Bignall]

Actually, I didn't write any of the material you quoted.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Robin Bignall skrev:

>>Oh, I see now. Thanks.

> Actually, I didn't write any of the material you quoted.

No, I messed up big time. I apologize.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Fri, 11 Sep 2015 17:10:16 +1000, Peter Moylan
<pe...@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

This Lexus has been pimped with pumps. I very much doubt that it is
street-legal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A7t9h0rFVI


--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Robin Bignall]

On Fri, 11 Sep 2015 22:39:29 +0200, Bertel Lund Hansen
<gade...@lundhansen.dk> wrote:

>Robin Bignall skrev:
>
>>>Oh, I see now. Thanks.
>
>> Actually, I didn't write any of the material you quoted.
>
>No, I messed up big time. I apologize.

No need to. One of the reasons I snip only rarely is the problem of
getting the attributions spot on.

[pensive hamster]

On Monday, 7 September 2015 17:14:26 UTC+1, Tony Cooper wrote:
> Harrison Hill wrote:
>
> >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4
> >
> >"They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale,
> >The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale."
> >
> >We'd have had then (and now) a "refrigerator" (fridge) and "furnished an
> >apartment" (scansion permitting).
> >
> >"They had a hi-fi phono" We had "hi-fi" (high fidelity) but "phono"
> >was my grandmother's "gramophone" (phonogragh) for playing 78s. 45's (sic)
> >you played on a "record player" or (if you were lucky) a "radiogram" (which
> >is a mono stereogram). Later a "music centre" which also played
> >"cassettes".
> >
> >Whatever is a "souped up jitney"? I can Google it myself, but I'm going
> >to spend a bit of time trying to figure it out :)
>
> Roebuck would be Sears, Roebuck & Company. Sears sold sets of
> furniture as well as individual pieces. A two-room set would be
> something like a couch, one or two chairs, and end tables for the
> living room and a bed, dresser, and night table for the bedroom.
> Variations, of course. Lamps might be included.
>
> A Coolerator was a brand sold between 1908 and 1954. It was a
> combination of an ice box and a mechanical cooler. It used block ice
> and a mechanical coolant dispenser. It was the poor person's
> refridgerator.
>
> I would understand a "hi-fi phono" to be a turntable that was part of
> a hi-fi system with separate components. A record player was all one
> unit, but a hi-fi system used a turntable component and better
> speakers.
>
> "Souped-up", when referring to an automobile, means modified in some
> way to improve performance. The couple in the song is a young couple,
> and for the male to soup-up his car would not be unusual.
>
> The song was composed in the early 1960s when Chuck Berry was in
> prison, but not released until 1964. Evidently, "jitney" is a term
> that Berry used to mean any "automobile". There are other meanings
> for "jitney" that are more specialized.

Wandering slightly off-topic, I was washing the dishes a year
or two back, while listening to BBC Radio 2. Ronnie Wood
(of the The Rolling Stones) was on, introducing some of the
music that had influenced him in his own musical career. He
mentioned in passing that Chuck Berry never wrote about
love or romantic feelings, as so many pop/rock writers do,
but only about mechanical things (I think that was the word he
used).

Well, it struck me as quite interesting at the time ...

[Dr. HotSalt]

On Monday, September 7, 2015 at 9:14:26 AM UTC-7, Tony Cooper wrote:

(snip)

> "Souped-up", when referring to an automobile, means modified in some
> way to improve performance. The couple in the song is a young couple,
> and for the male to soup-up his car would not be unusual.

I've been patiently waiting for a discussion of the usage of "soup" to refer
to improving car performance. Since nobody else has shown an interest I'll just
get things rolling as it were.

Various sources give various possibilities, including but not limited to-

that the car was put together out of ordinarily disparate parts to make a
greater whole, like soup-

that it derives from "supercharger", but a car doesn't have to have a
supercharger to qualify as souped-up-

that using a fuel injection system rather than ordinary carburetion reminded
someone of injecting racehorses with drugs (amphetamines, commonly known as
"speed") to make them run faster. Again though, not all souped-up cars use fuel
injection, nor can I find a firm historical cite for "soup" meaning what the
poor horses were injected with-

or that it came from the slang use of soup to mean nitroglycerin (nothing to do with nitromethane which was first used in cars just before WWII).

I haven't found anything definitive.


Dr. HotSalt

[Jerry Friedman]

On 9/10/15 4:24 PM, Tony Cooper wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Sep 2015 15:00:16 -0700 (PDT), "Peter T. Daniels"
> <gram...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 3:49:32 PM UTC-4, Robin Bignall wrote:
>>
>>> I'm reminded of that weird device that jumped the car up and down in
>>> "Breaking Bad". What was that all about?
>>
>> The device that does it probably involves hydraulics. A car with that
>> ability is a "low-rider." It's favored by Mexican-American car enthusiasts
>> and features in many movies etc. set in East L.A.
>
> No. A low-rider is a car that has been modified to reduce the ground
> clearance as much as possible. While a low-rider could also
> incorporate a hydraulic system to bounce it or lift it, most do not.

Living as I do within cat-swinging distance of the Lowrider Capital of
the World, I can tell you that a fair number of lowriders do have "hydros".

According to something I read once, probably in Smithsonian magazine or
something, the original purpose was to raise the clearance to legal
height if the police were around.

> Low-riders:
> http://www.marktraffic.com/all-my-friends-have-a-low-rider.php

deetdeetdeetdeetdeetdeet DEET, deetdeetdeet deet doo.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Jerry Friedman]

As far as I can tell, there's nothing particularly dangerous about being
near them.

Once in a long while I see one with one side raised and the other side
lowered. I haven't found out whether that's to show off somehow or the
hydros are broken.

--
Jerry Friedman

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Dr. HotSalt skrev:

> I've been patiently waiting for a discussion of the usage of
> "soup" to refer to improving car performance. Since nobody
> else has shown an interest I'll just get things rolling as it
> were.

I haven't before met the expression "soup up". Without
considering any of the aspects you mention, I understood it
immediately.

--
Bertel, Kolt, Denmark

[Robin Bignall]

Nor me, but this is all good stuff. FWIW COD11 thinks that the verbal
form of soup or soup-up is probably related to super-.

[Robin Bignall]

There are zillions of unfilled potholes on British roads, even
motorways, that the agencies or councils cannot afford to mend. I
reckon that some of those really low riders would quickly come to grief
here.

[Tony Cooper]

I know of no official source for the term "souped" - as in he souped
up his car - but my unofficial suggestion is that things are added to
the vehicle to make it better just as we add ingredients to something
like vegetable soup to make it better or more hearty.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

The OED says:

soup, v.

3. [compare quot. 1909 at soup n. 2c; perhaps influenced by super-
prefix] Orig. and chiefly with up. To modify (an engine, aircraft,
motor vehicle, etc.) to increase its power and efficiency. Also
transf. and fig. colloq. (orig. U.S.).

1931 [see souped adj. at Derivatives].
1933 C. K. Stewart Speech Amer. Airman 92 Soup Up, to
supercharge.
1939 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Aug. 1/6 We have done this without
‘souping up’ our engines, without putting alcohol in our
gasoline,..or flying with motors which last only five hours.
....

soup, n.

2. colloq. or slang.

c. In miscellaneous uses: (see quots.).
....
1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Soup,..any
material injected into a horse with a view to changing its speed
or temperament. Racing Cant.

[Charles Bishop]

In article <eec00a3c-88bf-468d...@googlegroups.com>,

pensive hamster <pensive...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

>
> Wandering slightly off-topic, I was washing the dishes a year
> or two back, while listening to BBC Radio 2. Ronnie Wood
> (of the The Rolling Stones) was on, introducing some of the
> music that had influenced him in his own musical career. He
> mentioned in passing that Chuck Berry never wrote about
> love or romantic feelings, as so many pop/rock writers do,
> but only about mechanical things (I think that was the word he
> used).
>
> Well, it struck me as quite interesting at the time ...

John Fogarty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) mentioned that
someone pointed out to him that he never wrote any romantic songs. This
was several years ago, so he may have done so since.

--
charles

[Ross]

Seems like an odd word to use. He didn't write car songs like
Brian Wilson et al., though I guess a car plays a central role
in "Maybelline". He wrote about girls he fancied (Carol,
Little Queenie), though they were a little young by modern standards
(Sweet Little Sixteen, Almost Grown). But on the whole his songs were
either anecdotes or sketches of characters, rather than expressions of
deep personal feeling. I don't see where "mechanical" comes into it.

[rescue...@gmail.com]

On Monday, September 7, 2015 at 10:25:50 AM UTC-5, Harrison Hill wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4
>
> "They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale,
> The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale."
>
> We'd have had then (and now) a "refrigerator" (fridge) and "furnished an
> apartment" (scansion permitting).
>
> "They had a hi-fi phono" We had "hi-fi" (high fidelity) but "phono"
> was my grandmother's "gramophone" (phonogragh) for playing 78s. 45's (sic)
> you played on a "record player" or (if you were lucky) a "radiogram" (which
> is a mono stereogram). Later a "music centre" which also played
> "cassettes".
>
> Whatever is a "souped up jitney"? I can Google it myself, but I'm going
> to spend a bit of time trying to figure it out :)

On Monday, September 7, 2015 at 10:25:50 AM UTC-5, Harrison Hill wrote:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeKPkGflDB4
>
> "They furnished off an apartment with a two room Roebuck sale,
> The coolerator was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale."
>
> We'd have had then (and now) a "refrigerator" (fridge) and "furnished an
> apartment" (scansion permitting).
>
> "They had a hi-fi phono" We had "hi-fi" (high fidelity) but "phono"
> was my grandmother's "gramophone" (phonogragh) for playing 78s. 45's (sic)
> you played on a "record player" or (if you were lucky) a "radiogram" (which
> is a mono stereogram). Later a "music centre" which also played
> "cassettes".
>
> Whatever is a "souped up jitney"? I can Google it myself, but I'm going
> to spend a bit of time trying to figure it out :)

I was a 9th grader in 1960 when the song was written. Hi-fi= high fidelity, which was a better sound quality at the time. Souped up back then simply meant that the engine had improvements to improve speed. Other modifications may or may not have been made, but souped-up referred to the engine. I wonder if jitney would have been another word that we here in western North Carolina referred to as a jalopy, just an old car. Not sure about that one.

[Madrigal Gurneyhalt]

Jitney is a passenger carrying vehicle. The origins of
the word are quite fun if you want to look 'em up.

[Ross]

You could look about 30 posts "up" in the present thread. Here's what
I reported in 2015:
------
The etymology of "jitney" seems to be utterly unknown*. It appears
earliest [1903] in the sense of a nickel (5 cents), then a
little later in phrases like "jitney bus" for a type of public
transport charging that fare. I think it has spent most
of its career referring to public transport vehicles, but
Wentworth & Flexner note the sense "any automobile, esp. a
small or cheap one" from the 1930s, which is the one we need here.

*The first OED citation is specifically about local slang
in St.Louis. Can we imagine our way down the river and contemplate
a connection with French "jeton", a token (maybe also a
poker chip?). It's a long reach, but what else have we got?
------

What have we learned since then?