high five and hillbilly and high octane

There is actually a raging Internet debate going on about the origin of the "high-five." The high-five is another instance of a practice apparently beginning in sport and entering into the common practice of Americans. It would be interesting to plot how athletic language has also entered into common speech ("Giving 110%," "Raising performance to a new level," "That is surely a slam-dunk," etc.), but the high-five is one of the gestures that has done so. The OED gives a very proper and clear definition: " A gesture of celebration or greeting in which two people slap each other's palms, usu. with their arms extended over their heads." Its first attestation in a publication is from 1980: "They used to slap palms ('Gimme five, man'), but what they do now is reach high and bang hands up there ('The high five, man'). After this reference in Maclean's Magazine, the term caught fire, and the NY Times, in the next year, had "The entire St. Louis bench rose and smotherd the player who had scored with highfives and head slaps usually reserved for someone who had homered."

So, what is so controversial about this? Well, there is ample Internet attestation for the notion that the first high-five was given in 1977 between Dusty Baker and Glen Burke after the latter had hit a home run for the Dodgers that year. But then, there is this highly-charged blog, which argues with pretty convincing clarity that Mont Sheets (Lamont Sheets), now a resident of Eminence, KY, a real town by the way, told the story of how his father began this gesture in Viet Nam with some of his army buddies. I have no independent knowledge of its origin, but it also seems plausible that it emerged in Black Culture as the "gimme some skin" movement (low fives) combined with the hand-raising in Pentecostal Churches, and when people gave each other some skin during the "passing of the peace" or whatever it might have been called in worship, there were still some hands in the air that could be touched. How do things "move" in the African-American culture? Is it from athletics to culture or, in my theory, probably from church to popular Black culture to athletics to White athletes to popular White culture. However, once it gets to popular White culture it has just about reached the end of the line, for who else would want it from there?

There is an suggestion in one dictionary that "high five" as a phrase might have emerged far before the athletic signification--and might have its origin in a card game. The third defintion of "cinch" in the OED has it as "a variety of all-fours, also called double pedro and high five." In any case, the current connotation of the term probably owes nothing to the card game.

Hillbilly

Let me go out of alphabetical order to pick up this interesting term. It emerged from a 1900 quotation in a New York newspaper: "In short, a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammeled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him." The term caught on and by the next decade one would hear talk of hillbillies and jayhawkers or a "frank humorous old hillbilly talking to neighbors." But just as Vermont has gotten its revenge on New Bedford (previous essay), so hillybilly as a term of derision has sort of faded from our vocabularly, to be replaced by the term in connection with a genre of music. "Fats Domino had done some real down home hillbilly-motown stuff." Thus, the term now signifies something genuine or authentic.

And, inded, the notion of the "hills" has now evolved in its significance in American culture. If you live in the hills now, at least in the Western half of the US, it is because you are rich. You want a view; you want an expanse of land that gives you a sense that you are a feudal lord over a vast demense; the higher up the hill, the more expensive is your house. How times change.

It is interesting to me how the word redneck has also received a transformation in meaning, but its elevation to something for which one was proud only has happened in the last decade or so. It orignally was a term of derogation and meant someone who was from the rural south and entertained reactionary ideas on subjects, especially race. As early as 1904, however, hillbillies and rednecks could be grouped together as follows: "The hill-billies came from the hills, and the rednecks from the swamps." That the term still had a derogatory connotation in America in the 1980's comes from this 1979 quotation about Jimmy Carter: "Carter...ran on a virtually redneck platform for the 1970 nomination [i.e., for Governor of Georgia]...After running a redneck campaign, [he] pledged an end to discrimination in his inaugural address." Hm, not only does this give us a slice or insight into the word redneck, but it might encourage a historian or two to dig deeply into Jimmy Carter's past. He is easily the most prominent ex-President in US History; maybe some enterprising person will want to remind us of who Jimmy used to be.

Why would redneck have been rehabilitated in the last decade or so? Well, according to "Over the hills: locating the politics in redneck discourse," a 2006 Marshall University Master's thesis by Brent M. Heavner, redneck speech, and proud proclamation of one's redneck tendencies, functions as a way to keep racial boundaries distinct and "entrench the status quo in terms of racial privilege." My thoughts about NASCAR's elevation during that same period, also...

High-Octane

I really am out of space, but I want to conclude with reference to this term. Of course it originates from the world of motor fuels. Its first attestation in this regard was from 1931. But, by 1944, it had taken on a figurative connotation, as is evident from this NY Times quotation: "High octane ballyhoo..has..smartly reversed the usual procedure of opus first and publicity, advertisting and exploitation afterward." Though the word "high-octane" relating to gas can still be used, people mostly refer to "Premium" grades of unleaded. But in the meantime the word has morphed to refer to any vigorous, powerful or very intense person or experience one has. For example, an internet search yields over 3,000,000 references to "high octane" but now it can refer to high octane clothing or high octane movies or a high octane cardio workout or high octane photos. The list is endles..

Well, I guess I haven't gotten to high jinks or hizzoner, but maybe some day...

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