Stingaree

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, Martha. This is Mike Miller from San Diego.

Hiya, Mike. How are you?

I’m fine, thank you.

Welcome.

I’ve had a very frustrating search for the origin of the word stingery,

The name given to a part of San Diego’s red light district.

Oh, yeah?

Most of the sources give a definition as a stingray,

But there’s a 1905 book by E.W. Horning titled Stingery set in Australia, which the title page defines as a fancy bushranger, a dandy outlaw, a common robber under arms.

But nothing that gives us a hint as to how the word came to be associated with San Diego’s red light district.

I’m hoping you all can help me.

Wow.

That’s an interesting word. Stingery. S-T-I-N-G-A-R-E-E. Right?

Right.

Have you seen signs with that on it or what?

There’s a nightclub sort of cabaret type place downtown named Stingery.

But beyond that, I haven’t been able to find anything out about it.

Is this a burlesque nightclub?

Are there ladies taking off their clothes there?

No, you know, I’m looking at the pictures of it on the web,

And it looks like a very elegant, a very swank type of place.

This is in San Diego right now?

Yes.

Wow.

That’s interesting.

Stingery.

I have to say I’m not surprised at all that the Chamber of Commerce or the City Council or whoever is in charge of naming things in San Diego wouldn’t – I’m not surprised they wouldn’t use stingery to name a district because it’s got some connotations that aren’t exactly savory.

Did you come across uses of stingery to mean a type of con game or confidence game?

No.

Yeah, it’s basically shortchanging somebody.

It’s getting more money back when you bought something than you were supposed to get.

Also, you may have run into this before.

Stingery means penis as well, especially in old blues songs.

There’s a line in one from the late 1920s.

It goes, it may be hot as a blazes and scorch my stingery, but the old hell of the Bible is hell enough for me.

The idea here with stingery meaning penis is that it’s kind of equating the stinger of the stingray to the stinger of a man.

And stinger itself was also a slang term for penis in the 20s and 30s.

So you’ve kind of got this double whammy here.

Well, actually, triple whammy, especially for San Diego.

You’ve got stingrays evoking the idea of the sea or ocean going and so forth, right, or sailors coming ashore.

You’ve got the idea of petty crime, which I guess you would find in a rough and rowdy district.

And then you’ve got stingery evoking maybe the sex trades or prostitution or men who were up to no good in search of a good time.

Yeah, right.

Well, Michael, is that at all the answer you expected?

That’s not the answer I expected, although I suspected that it had to do with the prostitution

Because it was laid into the red light district,

And the Stingel Reed district was officially closed in 1912.

And when the cops clamped down on it, they arrested 138 prostitutes.

And they lined them up before the judge, and the judge fined them each $100

But told them that he would suspend the fine if they would agree to leave town,

And almost all of them did.

And they all went down to the train station

And boarded the train for Los Angeles

After buying round-trip tickets.

So it’s…

Back to the stingery.

Right.

That’s great.

Well, this is all news to me.

This is fascinating stuff.

Well, thank you very much, though, for finding…

I really appreciate it.

Wow.

Sure, no problem.

It’s the kind of research I love to do.

Take care of yourself.

Right.

Bye-bye, Michael.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you have a question about stingeries or anything else, give us a call.

The number is 1-877-929-9673.

That’s 1-877-Wayword.