In Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock ’n’ Roll (1977), Tosches writes: The journalist and rock historian Nick Tosches is more positive on this note, saying the two words have long had sexual connotations. The expression “rock ’n’ roll,” the OED says, originated “probably with reference to the motion of the body when dancing.”īut it adds: “It is possible that there may originally also have been some allusion to uses of each verb as euphemisms for sexual intercourse.” The OED says “rock” (meaning “to move to and fro in a gentle and soothing manner”) was recorded in late Old English, and “roll” (“to move with a swaying motion”) in Middle English. Here we need to back up a bit to point out that individually, the verbs “rock” and “roll” are extremely old. In its earliest uses, it can probably be traced to black American music between World Wars I and II. The daddy of these usages, born in the USA in the 1950s, is the verb “rock-and-roll,” defined in the OED as “to dance to or play rock-and-roll music.”Īnd the granddaddy is the noun phrase “rock ’n’ roll” (as Oxford spells it), whose origins as a musical term aren’t so easy to pin down. This more recent example is from Wired magazine in 2000: “The infrastructure is still in place, future-proofed and ready to rock.” 17, 1966, issue of the Los Angeles Times: “All the Bruins, as a matter of fact, should be back and ready to rock with the Bears.” The OED’s earliest citation for this use of “rock” is from a football story in the Oct.
This version also appears “chiefly” in the expressions “let’s rock” and “ready to rock,” according to the dictionary. with vigour and energy”-was recorded as early as the mid-’60s, the OED says. with vigour and energy.” The phrase occurs “chiefly” in the phrases “let’s rock and roll” and “ready to rock and roll,” Oxford adds.Īs it happens, a shorter version, “rock”-also defined as “to get going, begin, esp.
The OED describes “rock-and-roll” here as a slang usage meaning “to get going, begin, esp. Chatterjee, let’s rock and roll.’ ” (From Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Desirable Daughters, 2002.) “He uncapped a fountain pen, and took out a yellow legal pad. Be ready to rock and roll at eleven-thirty!” (From Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster, 1997.) Later the phrase started showing up in books, as in these two OED citations: The town is ours.”Ī few years later, in 1984, this example appeared in the New York Times: “Mittleman looked down at his mended foot, slipped on a pair of shoes borrowed from Record and said, ‘I’m ready to rock and roll.’ ”
The Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest published example for this use of the verb “rock-and-roll” (which it hyphenates) is from the April 2, 1980, issue of the Washington Post: “It’s time to rock and roll. So that desk clerk meant “Let’s get on with checking you out and preparing your bill” (or words to that effect). Last year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony saw the long-awaited (and overdue) induction of Judas Priest, along with that of Eminem, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon and influential blues guitar player Elizabeth Cotten, among others.įor more info on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum and this year's inductees and induction ceremony, visit the organization's website (opens in new tab).Q: On a recent trip to California, a motel desk clerk asked us: “Are we done here?” When we replied, “Yes,” he said, “Let’s rock ’n’ roll.” How did this phrase come to mean “Let’s get moving”? I’ve even heard it used as a statement of approval.Ī: For more than 30 years, the verb “rock-and-roll” (also spelled “rock ’n’ roll”) has been used in the sense of “get moving” or “get started.” The 2023 inductees will be honored at the 38th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on November 3 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The inductees were selected by a body of more than 1,000 artists, historians and members of the music industry, with the public participating via a process called the Fan Vote, an online poll conducted on the Rock Hall's website that was tallied along with the other ballots.
Notably omitted from the Hall of Fame's induction list were nominees like Iron Maiden, Soundgarden, The White Stripes, Joy Division, New Order and Warren Zevon.
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