In 1939 Buddy Jones recorded “Rockin’ Rollin’ Mama” (String), in which he soulfully shouted, “I love the way you rock and roll!” But rockin’ and rollin’ didn’t really catch on until 1948, when Wynonie Harris released “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (King). The Boswell Sisters did a song called “Rock and Roll” in the 1934 United Artists flick Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round. In 1931 Duke Ellington did “Rockin’ in Rhythm” for Victor. This song inspired such variations as “Rock That Thing” by Lil Johnson and “Rock Me Mama” by Ikey Robinson.īy the 1930s the term had begun to be associated with the idea of music with a good beat to it. “Daddy,” suffice it to say, wasn’t trying to rock little Trixie to sleep. According to rock historian Nick Tosches, blues singer Trixie Smith recorded a tune in 1922 called “My Daddy Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll)” for Black Swan Records. In the 1920s the words “rock” and “roll,” used separately or together, were employed by black people to mean partying, carrying on, and/or having sex. But the roots of the term go back much earlier. Sources agree it is based on Japanese Jan Ken Po or Jan Ken Pon (or Janken for short) the Japanese game is described in English publications by 1879.Depends what you mean by “invent.” The term was first used to describe a particular kind of music by Alan Freed, the legendary Cleveland disc jockey who was among the first to introduce black rhythm-and-blues music to a white audience. The rock-scissors-paper game is attested by that name by 1976 (as paper stone and scissors by 1941). The third man whose name is Pilgreen, and who works in the treasurer's office, simply remarked that the Germans were between a rock and a hard place. One remarked that the Germans were between the devil and the deep sea while another corrected him by saying that the Germans were between the upper and nether mill stone. As an example of fine distinctions, a party of men were discussing the present situation of the German army, this week. Common in Arizona in recent panics sporadic in California. Southwest: to be between a rock and a hard place, vb. Rock is used figuratively for "a sure foundation, something which gives one protection and security" (especially with reference to Christ), from the 1520s (Tyndale) but it also has been used since the 1520s as "cause or source of peril or destruction," an image from shipwrecks.īetween a rock and a hard place "beset by difficulties with no good alternatives" is attested by 1914 in U.S. Also used attributively in names of animals that frequent rocky habitats, as in rockfish, rock badger, rock lobster (the last attested by 1843). slang the sense of "crystallized cocaine" is attested from 1973 in West Coast slang. ![]() The meaning "precious stone," especially a diamond, is by 1908, U.S. ![]() It is an error to use rock for a stone so small that a man can handle it : only a fabulous person or a demi-god can lift a rock. The extended sense of "a stone of any size" is by 1793, American English colloquial, and long was considered incorrect. In Middle English it seems to have been used principally for large rock formations but occasionally of individual boulders. ![]() Diez suggests Vulgar Latin *rupica, from Latin rupes "rocks." According to Klein and Century Dictionary, sometimes said to be from Celtic (compare Breton roch). , Middle English rokke, roche "stone as a substance large rocky formation, rocky height or outcrop, crag," from Old English rocc (as in stanrocc "stone rock or obelisk") and directly from Old North French roque, variant of Old French roche, which is cognate with Medieval Latin rocca (8c.), from Vulgar Latin *rocca, a word of uncertain origin.
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