Found under a gooseberry bush

Posted by ESC December 15, 2010 at 21:13In reply to Found under a gooseberry bush posted by Victoria S Dennis on December 15, 2010 at 19:25:

What is the origin of phrase "found under a gooseberry bush"?

"Gooseberry bush" was a 19th-century slang term for pubic hair. Go figure, as they say! (VSD)

Gooseberry is a verb meaning to steal clothes from a clothesline. Also, picking a gooseberry bush. A gooseberry bush is a clothesline ripe for the picking. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume II, D-H, by Frederic G. Cassidy and Joan Houston Hall (1991, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Page 936.

Replies

Found under a gooseberry bush James Briggs 16/December/10 (1)
- Found under a gooseberry bush Gary Martin 17/December/10 (0)