keister
Usually spelled keister (there are many alternate spellings), the original meaning of this American slang word is a satchel or suitcase. A later, and now more common sense, is that of a person’s rump or buttocks.
Dating in English to 1882, the term is from the German Kiste meaning box or case—the slang sense of rump also exists in the German. From George Wilbur Peck’s Peck’s Sunshine of that year:
The boy took the knight’s keister and went to the elevator.
A year earlier than this quote, Alfred Trumble’s The Man Traps of New York uses the word as a nickname, probably a reference to a man known for carrying a case:
Prominent among the small army of confidence operators in this city are “Grand Central Pete,"..."Boston Charlie,"..."Keister Bob,” “The Kid,” “Hungry Joe.”
Presumably, the sense of the buttocks developed because a traveling case was something you could sit upon. The earliest known citation is from an American Speech article on convict’s slang from 1931:
keister, n. A satchel; also what one sits on.
(Sources: Historical Dictionary of American Slang; Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Edition)
Post a Comment
Copyright 1997-2008, by David Wilton
Comments
I had heard that there used to be a manufacturer of traveling trunks called Keister. When folks waited at the train station, they used to sit on the trunk or foot locker. Thus, they were sitting on their Keister.
Could not find anything on Web to substanciate this, but will post when more evidence is found.