Boo-Boo

Baker, John JMB at STRADLEY.COM
Sun Jun 9 19:37:20 UTC 2002


        Safire's On Language column today discusses "boo-boo," a blunder or egregious error, of uncertain derivation, first OED cite 1954.  Is there any connection to the presumably unflattering nickname, most familiar as the name of Yogi Bear's sidekick?  Boo-Boo Bear didn't come along until 1958, but the nickname is older; a 1938 court case has a party named 'Boo Boo' Hoff.  Murray Hill Restaurant v. Thirteen Twenty One Locust, 98 F.2d 578 (3d Cir. 1938).

John Baker



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