Re: What is the erotic meaning of "pneumatic" in Huxley and Eliot?

<jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip way too much speculation about 1930s "pneumatic"]

The MW-11 dictionary has, as the third definition, "3 : having a
well-proportioned feminine figure; especially : having a full bust."

and, by extension, describes a firm but yielding tactile sensation which

Consider visual appearance only. People look more than touch.

Jay, may I suggest the method of gathering facts first, and speculating
afterwards? Finding out how the word has been used, and when, and using
clues thus found to establish (if possible) why?

Unfortunately, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang has no entry, and the
Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang doesn't go up to P.
But I'll give you these hits from Google Books, in chronological order:

His Own Image: A Novel - Page 72
by Alan Dale - 1899 - 310 pages
... (Here she pressed a dry eye with a finger-tip, and caused her
pneumatic bosom to lift itself in a sigh.)

[Quite possibly this one is about a boat/ship, as many other "she/her"
references are:]
Chips from a Busy Workshop - Page 184
by Lorin Webster - 1919 - 191 pages
And even the bump caused her no inconvenience, She was so pneumatic
and light, So she rubbed but a moment the part that had seen dents,
And then skimmed ...

Story - Page 37
by Whit Burnett, Martha Foley - 1931
Abigail was such a little mite of a person that when her pneumatic
breasts got large they buoyed her up so it was no effort at all for
her to climb.

The Atlantic Monthly - Page 397
by John Davis Batchelder Collection (Library of
Congress) - 1932
She had the pneumatic bosom and fat red face that inspire
confidence in children. 'Well, I'm blessed,' she declared, 'if I
ever seen two lovelier kiddies!

English for the Armed Forces: Writing, Speaking, Reading - Page 112
by Americus George David Wiles, Arlin M. Cook, Jack
Trevithick - 1943 - 262 pages
Blithely she walked down the street as if she were walking on
pneumatic tires but that was when there was a surplus of rubber. 3.
...

The Island in the Square: A Novel - Page 289
by William Du Bois - 1947 - 391 pages
From the pom-poms on her slippers to the last tremor of her
pneumatic breasts, May was a college-town harlot in the flesh: a
far from outstanding member of ...

There are many other references to pneumatic tools of all kinds, guns,
tubes, signals, etc. The word itself is quite old and I can't say which
use gave rise to this piece of slang.

--
Best -- Donna Richoux


.

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