Etymology of 'To Pull'

[oakstone730]

I've been kind of curious about the origin of 'pulling' in terms of how it is using in the slash stories I've been reading. Had never heard of the word used in the context of going to the club and having a one-off before. My first thought that it was an exclusively British term and/or a gay term that wasn't part of my American het etymology. Terms I'm used to as far as going to a bar are more along the lines of "to get lucky" or "to score."

So, I pulled out volume VII of the  Oxford English Dictionary  (OED) to look up the origin of the word pull. OED has over five pages on the literary references for 'pull'. I was surprised at first to find the first reference to pull in this context was a 20th Century one - James Joyce in  Ulysses  (1922) "O Yes I pulled him off into my handkerchief"

In the 1960s, pull was used in the context of multiple het sexual partners - Claude Brown in  Manchild in the Promised Land  (1965) "One of the group who had pulled a train on their sister" -- a train meaning multiple sexual partners. In 1965 in the Sunday Express a reporter included the quote "As a young man I could never pull any birds" (again het)

OED goes on to quote from Wilbur Smith's 1970 novel  Gold Mine,  "I felt like a peeping tom, watching someone, you know, pulling his pudding." Pudding, in the non-dessert sense sent me off in a completely different direction. I'd heard the term 'poundin' the pud' but hadn't really given it much thought.

So, obviously the pud is pudding and I was flipping the pages in the OED to get to the truth of the pudding. Which brought me to this lovely sentence from D'Urfey's 1719 work,  Wit and Mirth,  "I made a request to prepare again, That I might continue in Love with the strain of his Pudding." 

I'm sure there are more references but these are the one's that amused me...

Comments

[who_la_hoop]

It's definitely not just a gay thing, but may be a British thing :) Eg. me and my friends would say we were 'going out on the pull' which means out to try and snog some men. (Or women!) :D I do think of it more as going out on a hunt for a kiss, rather than a one-night stand, but it can be either. A well-known (but terrible) chat-up line is: "Get your coat, love, you've pulled." Ie. you're coming home with me for a shag. Not classy!

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if it was more of a snog pair-up than one-offs. The chat-up line is terrible, I can only hope that it doesn't get used very often!

[eidheann_writes]

Femme used it in her hols fic last year (We Are Young, or were. 'Mbraindead) as a line Harry uses to reinstigate the on-again off-again relationship he has w Draco. Always felt it a bit presumptuous, but the fact it is just a BAD chat-up line makes me appreciate it more

*offtopic*

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

Completely on topic -- Femme's story was wonderful! I guess I'll just have to re-read it to find Harry's line.

[veritas03.livejournal.com]

Etymology ftw! I love finding out about words. Used to go to sleep reading the dictionary when I was a kid. Yes, I am a nerd.