wolf whistle and make out

I think one of the hardest tasks in the world must be to work for the Oxford English Dictionary and to write the entry for some basic English verbs, like "make." The definition goes on for page after page, with more than 98 usages, most of which are broken down into sub and sub-sub usages. How, ultimately, do you decide what is a different usage of the word? Well, I don't have to worry about that today--here my interest is in looking at some words that are made up of 'make' and then another word, such as makeweight, makework, etc. The problem is compounded because you don't really know whether it is "makework" or "make-work" or "make work," and there seems to be neither rhyme nor reason why it should be one way or the other. But, laying aside these issues, let's begin with a word that we all think about a good deal--make-out.

Make-Out

If you move down to usage 93 of "make," you come to "make out." But then, "make out" is used in several ways, and so you journey to sub-usage "i" where we have several sub-sub definitions, among them "to manage" or "to succeed in accomplishing; to effect, achieve." We are pretty familiar with the use of "make-out" in this sense. So, Washington Irving could write in 1820: "I wish you would..let me know..how you and Murray make out together." That is, 'How are you succeeding?' Or Dickens, in Great Expectations, can say, "I am rather bare here, but I hope you'll be able to make out tolerably well till Monday." The OED thinks that a usage of "make out" in 1939 actually is the bridge to the concept of "making-out" as an amorous activity. While Winston Churchill was speaking with all seriousness of how the allies could "make out" with Germany, another writer, Irene Baird, could say, "Oh, say, how'd you make out with Hazel?" Now, I can't imagine making out with a woman named Hazel in 2006, but in 1939, well, it might have been different..

But it wasn't until the late 1940s-early 1950s, that decade where propriety was supposed to be observed (at least that is the "myth" of the 1950s) that the flood-gates burst and "make out" with its amorous connotation flourished. From Leon Uris in 1953: "I tried making out with her but she cut me down." Or, also from 1953: "What was there for a guy to do now? Go to dances. Try to make out." I wonder what people did before 1950? Hm....did they "make-out?" What was the word? Well, we can see language changing right before our eyes with a 1949 quotation from the highest authority: the New York Times Magazine. "They used washed-up expressions like 'wolf' when the correct description for such a fellow is 'make-out artist.'

From Make-Out Artists to Wolves

This last quotation is suggestive, because it helps us get to amorous terms previous to the 1950s. I was arrested by the term "wolf," because I wrote briefly on the term "wolf-whistle" this week. That was how Emmett Till's August 24, 1955 whistle at the white shopkeeper, Catherine Bryant, was characterized this week at Willamette University by Till's cousin Wheeler Parker. Parker said that Till left the Bryant's store (did he buy anything?), and was on the veranda with Parker and others when Mrs. Bryant came out. Then Till "wolf-whistled" at her. I discoverd, from the OED that "wolf-whistle" was first attested in print only in 1952. From Time Magazine, "No one took exception to USN wolf-whistles at the senioritas. But women could do it to, as this quotation from 1953 illustrates: "Some vulgar female person let out a low wolf-whistle as she passed him." Then, we actually have that word used in connection with the Emmett Till case. From the Baltimore Sun, on September 2, 1955 (2 days after Till's body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River), we have: "The Governor of Mississippi today called for a complete investigation of the kidnap-killing of a Negro youth who allegedly wolf-whistled at a white woman." But, as anyone who knows MS history would conclude, this "investigation" was similar to an investigation launched in 2006 by the Bush Administration--it is announced with great fanfare but then, because all organs of government are controlled by the Republicans, is quickly forgotten and never again mentioned.

Why "wolf-whistle?" Because there had been a usage of "wolf" for about 100 years to suggest a "sexually aggressive male." Interestingly enough, there are attestations in English for a "wolf" as being a seducer of women as well as a male homosexual seducer. From Thackeray (1847) we have: "Rawdon, said Betty..I must have a sheep-dog..I mean a moral shepherd's dog..to keep the wolves off me." Or, from 1862: "I vowed I'd tell Mark what I had seen and heard, and what sort of a wolf she allowed to make her presents of fine clothes." Because of our concern with equal rights in the 1960s, we invented a usage of wolfess to emphasize a sexually aggressive woman. But then, as mentioned, the word "wolf" could also suggest a homosexual man, even though that usage didn't come into play until the 20th century. The earliest attestation is from 1917: "The sodomist, the degenerate, the homosexual wolf." A wolf in this meaning is the active or predatory sexual partner. And, going back yet further, the word "wolf" could be used for any man of cruel, ferocious or rapacious disposition. Finally, we could say that it all originates in Biblical terminology, where the wolves are the agents of the evil one who want to try to kill the lambs, who belong to Christ.

Conclusion

Well, we have traveled quite a distance in one essay from making out to the enemies of Christ. Let's do one more essay on words made up from "make."

2117