Re: Targer> Explanation for "Cloud 9"

[Shannon Acedo <acedos@MARLBOROUGH.LA.CA.US>]

I'm still searching for the exact source, but I know it can't be from
1976, because of the great Temptations song from earlier than that ("On
Cloud Nine, you can be what you want to be, on Cloud Nine, you ain't got
no responsibilities...."), and have been told it was a phrase used as
early as the '50's.  The Dictionary of American Slang, ed. by Wentworth
(1967) does include the phrase "on cloud seven", for "completely happy".
I'm still looking...

Shannon Acedo
Marlborough School
Los Angeles, CA
acedos@marlborough.la.ca.us

On Mon, 3 Oct 1994, Brunswick School wrote:

> Allison and Stumpers,
>
>      According to Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and
> Unconventional English (8th ed.), the slang expression "to be on cloud
> nine" originated in a 1976 Gerald Green novel, The Hostage Heart.  "Dr.
> Motzkin will pump you so full of pain-killers you'll be on cloud nine."
>
> Regards,
>
> Gene LaFaille
> Brunswick School
> wick1@transit.nyser.net
>