They kept referring to women for sex as 'trim'. I thought that was a relatively new term. I have lived a lot in my 70 years, but I never heard anyone, in the US Army, college, the street, anywhere, use that term until about 10 or 15 years ago. Is there any documentation to support its use in 1898 or is that an anachronism?
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Right. I believe that Eddie Murphy introduced the term. I know that he was the first one I ever heard say it. I wonder if anyone has heard it or seen it used before that, say in 1898 or so. I agree with you that the 'F'word was not used that much either. I heard adults using a lot of 'cuss words' while I was growing up, but I never heard them use that one either. It just seems like TV and the print media have done an awful lot of history revising in the last 20 or 30 years, including imagined language. I wonder how long it will be before we hear some cowboy saying 'bling' in a Western.
shareI noticed how, at the saloon, Big Rump Kate offered Tom and Hank some "sportin' girls". I thought that was a somewhat unexpected turn of phrase. I've never heard of whores being introduced as "sportin' girls". Of course, I live a sheltered life deep in the ground in a hobbit hole, so, what the hell do I know?
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"Puppy cuter than pig, but piglet cuter than puppy." -Mail Order Wife-
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Yes, that is true. I did hear that term used when I was a lad in the '50s. In fact, while I was riding in a car, which had stopped at a railroad crossing, a lady of the night came up and asked us, 'Are ya'll sportin' (pronounced it 'spoten'), and I had to ask my friends what she meant. That was in 1956, so I can't be sure if that term was used in 1898, but I don't think that 'trim' was used then.
The "F" word was known and used as far back as the 16th century, possibly earlier. The fact that the characters in Deadwood are all less than savory persons, just the type of people that would use the "F" word prolifically. Just because you didn't hear it as a child in the 50's doesn't mean much about what was said when you weren't around.
shareSo, when do you think the word 'trim' was first used in the context of women for sex?
shareIt's been not quite common usage as long as I can remember, but that only goes as far back as the 80's. Frankly, I hardly ever hear it, and it would likely take me a second or two to recognize what was being talked about.
shareI heard reference made to "trim" when I was a young boy and didn't know what the hell the older guys were talking about, and that was in the mid to late '60s, so no, Eddie Murphy didn't coin the phrase; he just made put it into the common domain. I suppose it came from "trimmin' off a piece".
shareI first heard the phrase in the 60's as well. It might have been earlier, but since I didn't turn of an age to hear that sort of thing until the early to mid 60's that was when I first heard it as well.
When I heard the word being used in the movie, I actually went WTF?
Sportin Ladies was the term I have actually read in old books as being the most accurate, but trim? I have my doubts about that one.
They who give up liberty to
obtain a temporary safety deserve
neither liberty or safety
The earliest usage of the word "trim" as slang for women that I could find online was 1955.
Trim is slang for female genitalia. In the blues, it's usually used by a man to express a need or an intention, as in “I'm gonna get me some trim tonight.” This usage has been around since the 1920s. This meaning for trim is still in use today.
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