Anyone ever been asked to "Pump the Weasel"?

[Infernaltootler]

A beardy old boy on an accordian pointed at me and told me to play something, "Go on, pump the weasel," he said.

Was it a tune? Is it old English for playing the whistle? I modestly declined.

Someone help me, I don't want to disappoint him again.

[MTGuru]

Oh dear god, please let this not mean what we're all thinking.

OTOH, I'm not sure that "playing the whistle" is really any better.

[Feadoggie]

Oh dear god, please let this not mean what we're all thinking.

Right! Infernaltootler, you might want to check with the Urban Dictionary.

http://www.urbandictionary.com

Feadoggie

[Denny]

Oh dear god, please let this not mean what we're all thinking.

OTOH, I'm not sure that "playing the whistle" is really any better.

takes years of advanced yoga first, dunnit?

[s1m0n]

No idea. The closest I can find is:

pump weasel
A derogatory comment aimed at an individual who has no social skills whatsoever and is generally perceived to be lower than a snake's belly.
Oi, don't drop your crap in the street you pump weasel!

but I'd assume that anything at urban dictionary with only a single 'citation' was coined by the citer and is unlikely to exist in the wild.

[caedmon]

He may have been referring to his accordian as a weasel, and was leaving out some other parts of speech. Possibly asking you to simply play anything and he would follow.

[hans]

pump = blow. weasel = whistle. pump the weasel = blow the whistle.

Suggestions have been made that the phrase "Pop goes the weasel" originated from cockney rhyming slang, see
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/pop- ... easel.html

'Popping' is a slang term for pawning, i.e. depositing articles with a pawnbroker in return for money. Weasel may be a corruption of whistle - in cockney rhyming slang 'whistle and flute' i.e. suit. It could also be from another example of CRS, i.e. 'weasel and stoat' -> coat.
The Eagle was a London pub, near the City Road, and a later Eagle pub still exists on the site.

Half a pound of tuppenny rice,
Half a pound of treacle.
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

Up and down the City road,
In and out the Eagle,
That’s the way the money goes,
Pop goes the weasel.

The Eagle was established as a music hall in 1825 and was rebuilt as a public house in 1901. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Goes_the_Weasel ]

Pop goes the Weasel was a dance, popular in England in the 1850s. The dance didn't have lyrics as such. It was a jig and "pop goes the weasel" was shouted out at significant points to accentuate the dance.

[westwind]

Someone help me, I don't want to disappoint him again.

Personally I would disappoint him, there are some things which just aren't done in public.

'Popping' is a slang term for pawning, i.e. depositing articles with a pawnbroker in return for money. Weasel may be a corruption of whistle - in cockney rhyming slang 'whistle and flute' i.e. suit. It could also be from another example of CRS, i.e. 'weasel and stoat' -> coat.
The Eagle was a London pub, near the City Road, and a later Eagle pub still exists on the site.

Interesting, I am old enough to remember this from my very distant childhood. I was always led to believe that to pop was to pawn an item, as stated, but distinctly remember being told that weasel was a slang term used for a hatter's iron, presumably because of it's shape.

[s1m0n]

There is an enormous range of theories about the origin or meaning of "Pop goes the Weasel". The short answer is that no one knows. It's a late arrival in print (found no earlier than the mid nineteen hundreds) but almost certainly considerably older than that. The present form of the worlds didn't appear in print til 1914.

[Feadoggie]

The present form of the worlds didn't appear in print til 1914.

Oh my!

[brewerpaul]

Hmmm.... as in Thin Weasel? I asked Glenn about that name once and he said that it was an "in joke" and I didn't pursue it any further.

[BoneQuint]

Hmmm.... as in Thin Weasel? I asked Glenn about that name once and he said that it was an "in joke" and I didn't pursue it any further.

I think I recall reading it was based on how someone with a thick Irish accent might pronounce the phrases "Thin Weasel" and "Tin Whistle" practically identically.

[Feadoggie]

I think I recall reading it was based on how someone with a thick Irish accent might pronounce the phrases "Thin Weasel" and "Tin Whistle" practically identically.

I had thought that myself. Kind of like that infamous movie line, "Badgers? We don't need no stinking badgers."

Feadoggie

[walrii]

So was the box player telling him to play his weasel/whistle aggressively or suggesting that pawning the weasel/whistle might be a better course?

[benhall.1]

Hmmm ... "weasel" was always "coat" in rhyming slang in my experience: "weasel and stoat".