Click to Subscribe
‘Frails’
Hyper-Masculine, Depression Era, Boxing Lingo from Robert E. Howard’s The Pit of the Serpent
© 2018 James LaFond
JAN/3/18
“I am the soul of politeness around frails, and never pull no rough stuff.”
-Steve Costigan
Frails: women
Galoot: galoot (ɡəˈluːt) or galloot n slang chiefly US a clumsy or uncouth person [of unknown origin] ga•loot (gəˈlut) n. Slang. an awkward, eccentric, or foolish person.
Bezark: troublemaker
Howthesomever: making consideration of the circumstances while drunk.
Dope: fight lore on a certain boxer, a scouting report
Yeggs: a burglar or safe cracker, early 20th century, unknown origin
Zowie: exclamation of astonishment or amazement
Map or maps: a fighter’s face
Bung: banged up, from the Dutch for clogged
Hokem: nonsense
Bunk: slang for messed up or stupid
Smackers: dollars
I will make it my masculine mission to resurrect the term frails for women, and will not apply it to such willfully womanly creatures as bug-men and sissies.
A Well of Heroes
Welsh Trench Sword
the man cave
Steevo’s Sour Deal
eBook
'in these goings down'
eBook
search for an american spartacus
eBook
sorcerer!
eBook
dark, distant futures
eBook
honor among men
eBook
night city
eBook
the sunset saga complete
eBook
cracker-boy
LaMano     Jan 3, 2018

Thanks to Cab Calloway, many of us never had lost the sense and meaning of "frail" .....

"Folks, here's a story 'bout Minnie the Moocher

She was a red-hot hoochie-coocher

She was the roughest, toughest frail

But Minnie had a heart as big as a whale ...."

So it's still alive, and CAN be brought back ....

"Dame" is probably beyond life-support, though.
Lynn Lockhart     Jan 3, 2018

So glad you are reading Costigan stories!
James     Jan 4, 2018

Howard had more boxing stories than I realized, 17 tales and 3 poems in this collection.
Shep     Jan 4, 2018

I think that "frails" would be a noble addition to the anti-wimp lexicon, alongside "soyboy" and "bugman". This needs to happen!
James     Jan 5, 2018

Frails it is, Sir.
Mike_C     Jan 5, 2018

>"Dame" is probably beyond life-support, though.

Maybe so, but "dame" is actually polite and respectful (being the cognate of "sir") whereas "frail" implies deficiency.

Someone on the web claims to have dated the origin of "frail" for "a female" to 1908—somehow. This same source also suggests that perhaps this came from Shakespeare/Hamlet: "Frailty, thy name is woman."

What's interesting to me is that "frail" may be the original of the term "frill" used for women in Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar (character-driven science fiction) series.
James     Jan 6, 2018

Fascinating, sir.

How about this:

Broad

Dame

Frail

Depending on their robustness?
Shep     Jan 5, 2018

More on the nomenclature:

occidentaldissent.com/2018/01/04/close-your-fcking-mouth
  Add a new comment below:
Name
Email
Message