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Lumpy Where did ti come from?

#1 User is offline   jdeegan 

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Posted 2008-February-08, 22:31

:P Can anyone enlighten me as to the source of the generally derogatory slang term "lumpy' or "lumpee" or "lumpie" used to refer to a poor bridge player or gambler used in the American South during the first two thirds of the twentieth century?

Possibilities I have heard of include are the ever popular Yiddish/German lumpen prolitarian references or to the older 100% nativist/racist references (post Civil War) to the Lumpee native american tribe of North Carolina. Are there other possibilities? Or do these cover the waterfront?
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#2 User is offline   helene_t 

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Posted 2008-February-09, 07:35

The Dutch adjective "lomp" means something like crude or vulgar.
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#3 User is offline   bid_em_up 

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Posted 2008-February-09, 09:15

From Cassell's Dictionary of Slang:

lumpy = tipsy, slightly drunk (circa 19th century to early 1900's)
lumphead = absolute fool, idiot, totally incompetent (circa 1910-1960)

No explanation given as to how the word originated, but evidently it did not refer to just a poor bridge player/gambler.

(btw, Google is a great tool for finding stuff like this out) B)

Google: lumpy slang
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#4 User is offline   kenrexford 

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Posted 2008-February-09, 14:26

Not at all on point, but it might offer a suggested means of ultimately resolving this debate:

http://seattlepi.nws...eyman14xx.shtml
"Gibberish in, gibberish out. A trial judge, three sets of lawyers, and now three appellate judges cannot agree on what this law means. And we ask police officers, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and citizens to enforce or abide by it? The legislature continues to write unreadable statutes. Gibberish should not be enforced as law."

-P.J. Painter.
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