Vintage Slang

HUAC was the House Un-American Activities Committee.

It is a slavery reference from before the Civil War in the US, meaning "whip crackers."

"You got it, Pontiac!" was a slogan in popular Pontiac automobile television ads in the 1980's.

It is wise not to ask too many questions about idioms and slang. Many times there are no reasons for them. This is not opaque to begin with. A rack is a shelf that holds items of various size. A spice rack is an example. Since a woman's breasts are held up like bottles of spice on a rack, they have been referred to as a rack.

While it's true that there are slang terms and idioms that have baffling or uncertain origin, it is interesting and informative to know that origin, in the cases where it can be found, for the simple reason that it quite often gives a fascinating perspective on history that you won't necessarily find in a textbook. And quite a few of our slang/idiomatic phrases do have historical rationale behind them, some going back earlier than the Roman Empire. Two interesting sources are the Online Etymology Dictionary or any of the available lists of nautical sayings (e.g, 'let the cat out of the bag').

For example, the first resource above has an alternative attribution for the use of the term 'rack' as slang for a woman's breasts. Evidently, the term was originally adopted by hunters as slang for the highly branched antlers of some ungulates such as deer and elk. Of course, large antlers are a readily observable gender distinction for these animals. By extension, since breasts are a readily observable gender distinction for women (hence it might said that breasts declare a woman's gender as antlers declare an elk's gender), 'rack' evolved to apply to breasts over the course of the following decades. It's an interesting case of a slang term that appeared for one particular use and then later loosened and broadened its use. This is probably unsurprising since hunting is a male social group activity in western cultures (and others), and male social groups are precisely where pretty much all slang terms regarding women arise.

If mean she/he wants you as a girlfriend/boyfriend

Buy gasoline, provide marijuana, or provide sex to pay for the ride.

if somebody says f you just say "maybe later" or something like that

I think it came from when a VC was shot in the head by a high powered gun, his head would split apart and look sort of how a pair of pants looks when unzipped. Zipperhead because you could zip his head back together.

It came about during the Korean war. Soldiers had run over some NVA soldiers and its said that the tire marks left on their heads and faces resembled a closed zipper.

Brusque is being short with someone, treating them with little regard or respect. Brassy would be arrogant, possibly insulting

When you are an outgoing crazy loveable person.

For Supervisors, the removal of vandalism is relatively easy. However, it is very time consuming. Once a vandal is caught, it is much easier to stop the vandalism if the person doing it is stopped from accessing the website. If the vandal has registered on WikiAnswers, they can be permanently blocked. However, if they have not the only option is to block their IP address. Being blocked off for a few hours is generally enough to turn them off because by the time they can get back on they forget about it. The only problem is that some IP addresses are shared. It is regrettable that sometimes when a vandal is blocked, legitimate users are prevented from logging on also. For the majority of blocks, only half to four hours are used, and it is impossible to permanently block an IP address. The supervisors with block vandal power also have access to a 'be careful about blocking' log of IPs with many users. We are very cautious about blocking these IP addresses for more than half an hour at a time because we don't want to lock legitimate users off the network. If your IP has been blocked the Supervisor team apologises for the inconvenience. We have no choice but to use this function to deter vandals. We're sorry that you got blocked if you did nothing wrong.

This is a colorful, quaint and countrified saying. A polecat is a skunk. Skunks have black fur with a white stripe. If you could flatter a skunk long enough for him to loose his stripe, that would mean that you are confident enough and charmingly eloquent enough to win over even someone so dangerous, ugly or cynical that nobody else is brave enough or stupid enough to engage in conversation.

To toe the line, or toe the chalk line, is to follow orders and do what you are told. In some circumstances people are asked to stand in front of a line (which may or may not be drawn in chalk) with their toes at the line. If people do that, it is an indication of obedience.

Watch your back. Military slang uses the face of a clock to determine position, with 12 being straight ahead of you.

it means you either have a fear of arms or are scared of ladys wait it might be that your scared of ladys with 6 arms. I deffenitly do know that it means you will have a dream about a gay midget tonight

A Bobby is a British policeman. The London police force was founded by Robert Peel, and policemen are therefore known as Bobbies or Peelers.

The British slang 'top hole' originates from the term "top whole one" used in British boarding schools to mean "excellent" or "first-rate." Over time, it evolved into the shortened version 'top hole', used to describe something of high quality or top-notch.

rotgut, rattlesnake juice, hootch, joy juice, who-hit-john

Sleeping

The mizzen is the third mast on a ship, or the mast immediately aft of the mainmast. The top sail on that mizzenmast would the mizzen-top. Your local slang may vary.

It has two separate meanings: (colloquial, usually what they are meaning) form of encouragement, (colloquial sexual) finger bash or poke.