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To Bogart

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March 28, 2008, 19:15
wordmatic
To Bogart
My husband recorded and watched Easy Rider this week and then dug around on the 'Net to find a recording of a song from the soundtrack: "Don't Bogart That Joint."

I was puzzled as to the meaning of the verb "to Bogart." I thought it meant "don't hog the whole thing," because the lyrics say, "Don't Bogart that joint, my friend; pass it over to me."

George says it means don't slobber all over it. Has anybody ever heard this term used in conversation? Did you know what the song meant the first time you heard it?

Wordmatic
March 28, 2008, 19:40
zmježd
it means don't slobber all over it

Never heard of this meaning.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
March 28, 2008, 19:47
wordmatic
I haven't looked it up myself, but when he said that I could picture Humphrey Bogart just letting a cigarette hang loosely from his wet lips.

And now that I look it up, it appears it does mean to monopolize or take more than one's fair share of something, and not to slobber all over it. I think my husband may have just read that into it. But I had never heard the term at all.

WM
March 28, 2008, 20:04
Kalleh
I've not heard it used as a verb, but here is a site I found that concurs with your view, WM.

We'll have to come up with a substitute word for your husband to use for "don't slobber all over it." Wink
March 29, 2008, 01:15
tinman
Here and here are other places that talk about it, the lyrics to and and a YouTube performance of "Don't Bogart that Joint."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
March 29, 2008, 07:18
wordmatic
I think CJ's explanation is probably right, that it started off meaning to let the cigarette or joint dangle uselessly from one's lips without inhaling, and therefore wasting whatever was there to be smoked.

Bogart always did have wet lips when he did this; otherwise the cigarette never would have stayed there. So, revoltingly, the spit is part of it, but never made it into the definition, and then the definition evolved from a meaning of waste to one of greed. My husband, being squeamish about such things, would have noticed the adhesive involved. OK, time to go back and watch Casablanca.

Wordmatic
March 29, 2008, 07:39
tsuwm
quote:
OK, time to go back and watch Casablanca.


If you're interested in researching "don't bogart that joint", go to the source -- the term is first attested in Easy Rider.
March 29, 2008, 13:05
wordmatic
Yes, since we had just recorded it, I watched it too. What a period piece that was! Picaresque, complete with noble hippie savages, zilch dialog, bad trips, evil redneck stereotypes and a bathetic denouement. 40 years after my Flower Power years, it's hard to believe so many of us at least half bought into that aimless drivel!
Hard for me to make heroes out of the Hopper and Fonda characters now that I am so waaaaay far past 30.

Anyway, the TCM version cut off the "Don't bogart that joint, my friend" song abruptly. The Jack Nicholson character wasn't actually bogarting it by dangling it from his lips without inhaling. He was holding it between his fingers while he talked on and on about UFOs.

So I need to watch Casablanca to watch the original Bogart bogarting his cigarette!

Wordmatic
March 29, 2008, 13:28
tsuwm
quote:
Originally posted by wordmatic:
He was holding it between his fingers while he talked on and on about UFOs.


hence, monopolizing it.

Roll another one
Just like the other one
You've been hangin on to it
And I sure would like a hit

Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me
Don't bogart that joint, my friend
Pass it over to me
March 29, 2008, 16:11
wordmatic
So you don't think Bogart's style of smoking feeds into the meaning?
(the lip-hanging comes towards the end.)
WM

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordmatic,
March 31, 2008, 20:57
tinman
Wordorigins lists three meanings for bogart:



The OED Online lists two meanings:



The Word Detective says:



So I don't see much support for C J's assertion that the original meaning was to not waste the joint. Perhaps, as the Word Detective says, "... no one who actually participated in the 1960s remembers much of anything."
April 01, 2008, 04:46
wordmatic
You're right, but surprisingly, there is support for the slobber angle. Thanks for all the research.
April 01, 2008, 19:48
Kalleh
I'd say Tinman is our best researcher here.