Tickets to the Gun Show

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Linda Beckman. I’m from La Mesa, California.

Hi, Linda. Welcome.

Hi, Linda.

Thank you. Hi.

Well, I have a funny, well, kind of funny to me question.

I was at the gym the other day, and the trainer pointed to my deltoids and said,

Look at those guns.

Well, in my case, it’s like probably a bump, but anyway.

But I don’t really know what that means.

And I came home and, you know, went online and just I saw that it was like a slang in the UK, but I really didn’t get where that came from.

He pointed to your, was it a man or a woman, your trainer?

A woman.

She pointed to your deltoids?

My upper arm.

Your biceps.

Bicep. I’m sorry, my bicep.

Okay. I was going to say because the deltoids are the ones that are above your shoulder blades on your back.

I’m sorry.

That’s all right. That’s all right.

I was just like, oh, hey, new meaningless thing term.

I was excited to get ready to make some notes here.

I’m like, boy, this is moving faster than I thought.

His glasses are steaming up.

So let’s talk about your body.

So you’re doing well.

Your trainer likes the way you’re moving and points out your guns on your arms.

These are your bicep muscles.

You got a little bit of a bump there.

And you did a little digging and found that guns has something to do with the U.K.

Where did you find that information?

I just typed in on the internet.

I said, what guns and biceps?

Question mark, question mark.

Right, right.

I ask because I don’t think there’s a particularly British component to it.

It’s fairly common in the U.S.

It has been for a couple decades.

You’ll find it being used in American sports without any kind of suggestion at all

That it was borrowed from cricket or whatever they play in the U.K.

I feel like I’ve just heard it more recently, though.

I mean, maybe that’s, you know, I don’t get out much.

You may have.

I’ve seen it in movies, even on television shows.

It’s a certain kind of thing that people joke about in the office.

I’ve seen it.

But there’s a suggestion, one suggestion that I saw from a fairly reliable source,

And this is Jonathan Green, the slang lexicographer,

Is that perhaps it has something to do with American baseball,

Referring to the thrower’s arm as his gun.

Oh.

So it’s also the arm.

It directly connects it to sports in a context where a fit body is important.

Our tools are natural extensions of our arms.

The fist is sometimes called the hammer.

And we have all these different ways of referring to our arms that aren’t really about them being body parts as much as them being tools.

So there’s a suggestion in the 1920s.

It came up.

People started talking about their gun, particularly when it became important that pitchers stopped trying to pitch the ball in a way where the batters could hit it.

I don’t know if you realize this, but in baseball, they used to try to pitch it in such a way so the batter could hit it.

What?

Yeah.

Really?

So once speed became more important, perhaps the idea of this arm firing out this white leather-covered bullet became more important.

And it was natural to call it a gun because they’re popping this thing out at an average of 86 miles per hour, right?

Wow.

So maybe that’s where it comes from.

I’m not 100% sure of that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, because baseball is given so much to the American language.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is another case.

So no military connection?

Not as far as I know.

I mean, hey, we’re a gun-bearing culture, basically.

So, you know, guns and baseball kind of go together, right?

A little bit of narcissism as well.

I’ll throw you in there.

Here we go.

And Linda, you’re going to be bearing bigger and bigger guns, I guess, huh?

I don’t know.

Just a little stronger would be better.

Okay, well, thank you so much for your information.

Our pleasure.

Thanks for calling.

Good talking with you.

All right, be well.

Bye-bye.

Okay, bye-bye.

So did somebody say something to you that made you say, I wonder where that comes from?

Call us 877-929-9673 or fire up your computer and send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.