On Jul 14, 2005, at 10:05 PM, dhbailey wrote:
Raymond Horton wrote:
On Jul 14, 2005, at 6:15 AM, dhbailey wrote:
Okay, what's the term for words which are originally antonyms but
which in certain situations mean the same thing?
Example: Cool, Hot That's really cool! That's really hot!
(both meaning essentially "that's really phat!") ;-)
Or, "That band really sucks!" "That band really blows!"
(But only in a rock/pop context. In a jazz context, "That band
really blows" means it improvises with extraordinary creativity and
group sensitivity.)
8-)
Christopher
In the original, non-musical meaning of the two words, suck and blow
mean the same thing, and neither is a really accurate description of
the act, but at least the former implies the correct direction.
I don't think what you are hinting at are the original non-musical
meanings of those two words.
Hmm, OK. Time for some slang etymology here.
When I was a boy, the term "suck" as in "You suck!" was only applied to
people, and in fact only to males, and usually to their performance in
sports. The term was quite homophobic, in fact, implying that instead
of getting in and playing the sport like a man, they were being
"fairies" (not my term!) and letting themselves be dominated by the MEN
who were playing well. The meaning of the term was quite clear to me
and everyone else, as it was substituted quite often by other taunts of
the same nature.
It was only much later that I heard it applied to things, like "This
hamburger sucks!" It became clear that the expression no longer meant
what it used to mean, and just meant "bad". I noticed a similar shift
in meaning in the word "pansy", which now apparently means "not
aggressive" or "gentle-natured" with no connection at all to my
generation's association of the term with homosexuality. It was freely
thrown around in the children's film "Madagascar" that I just took my
kids to this week, for crying out loud!
Maybe fifteen years ago I first heard "blows" meaning bad. It was
around the time that the expression "blowing chunks" (for throwing up)
gained popularity, and often the two were interchanged. "That team
blows chunks!" would be freely interchanged with "That team blows!" Of
course, now it just means "bad." Note there is no connection with
"sucks" that is immediately apparent to today's generation, just as
there is no connection between "phat" and "fat".
By contrast, in the jazz world "blow" has meant "improvise" for at
least eighty years, and maybe more. It also applies equally to non-wind
instruments, which caused me to giggle immoderately my first week in
music school when the teacher said, "OK, the guitar will blow first,
then the piano will take the next blow."
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