Yankee DOODLE

[A. Maberry]

That's the OED derivation. Actually it's says [cf. L.G. dudeltopf, -dop,
simpleton, noodle, lit. night-cap]. This might be a question that requires
a look at Grimm's Deutsches Woerterbuch, which I won't have access to
until Monday. Apparently of different orgin than the "dudel" in
"Dudelsack", "bagpipe" which OED is Slavic, cf. Polish "dudlio"=bagpipe.

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Thu, 25 Nov 1999, Barnhart wrote:

> I had an inquiry concerning the origin of _Doodle_ as in _Yankee
> Doodle_.  Did it come from earlier (1628) _doodle_ meaning "a silly or
> foolish person" [ultimately from German _dupeltopf_ meaning "simpleton]?
>
> Happy Thanksgiving,
> David K. Barnhart
> Barnhart at highlands.com
>