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FW: "rush the can"



I forwarded the query concerning "rush the can" to the University of
Missouri-Rolla's eminent etymologist, Prof. Gerald Cohen, and received the
following explanatory response, which he has allowed me to forard to the
Archives listserv.

Mark Stauter
Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Rolla

Prof. Cohen's response:

>       A colleague forwarded Ms. Anderson's  ARCHIVES query about "rush
> the can" to me. The expression means "to send out for beer" or "go
> oneself to drink beer." The original expression was apparently "to
> rush the growler" (synonymous with "chase the duck.") The imagery was
> a hunter sending his dog (the growler) to fetch a shot-down
> duck--extended to sending a boy to a local beer establishment to come
> back with a pail of beer. That sending of a boy to fetch beer was
> "rushing the growler," (i.e. causing the boy to rush; not rushing him
> as one would rush the quarterback).
>       Here is a quote from the NYC newspaper _The World_,
> June 5, 1898,
> p.9, col. 6, re James Dwyer, a member of the Hook gang: "...He was an
> adept a coaxing money out of a turnip--could stand up a 'drunk' on a
> dark night with the best of them--and when it came to 'rushing the
> can' there was no man on 'de Hook' who could rush it oftener or drink
> deeper or fight hard then he."
>        Further detail may be found in the following item: Barry Popik
> and Gerald Cohen,"_Rush the Growler_: Towards a Compilation of
> Treatments On This Expression," pp.1-20. in _Studies in Slang, VI_,
> by Gerald Leonard Cohen and Barry A. Popik, Frankfurt am Main: Peter
> Lang. 1999.
>         On a general note, for word meanings/origins/etc. you might
> wish to include the American Dialect Society discussion group
> (ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU) in your cc. list.
>
> --Gerald Cohen
>     Professor of Foreign Languages
>     (Research specialty: Etymology)
>     Member, American Dialect Society

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