Green Day (was Speaking of "gay," etc.)

[Jeff Prucher]

--- Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Green Day (was Speaking of "gay," etc.)
>
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>
> On Sep 22, 2004, at 10:31 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Speaking of "gay," etc.
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > --------
> >
> > I think the main term for the described item is "rope"; I
> > don't think _dookie chain_ is is what popularized _dookie_
> > itself. The Green Day album seems more likely a candidate.
>
> But this raises (okay, I admit it: I did consider using "begs") a
> couple of other questions. How did Green Day come to know "dookie"? And
> did they use it to mean "excrement"?
>

In response to your first question, it's probably impossible to know for sure,
but considering that it seems to have been fairly wide-spread (reports from
East Texas and the Pacific NW so far, and I knew it in Michigan in the 70s &
80s) it doesn't seem unlikely to me that three guys from the East Bay knew the
term, too.  I always assumed they used it to mean excrement (they are a punk
band after all) but I don't know for sure.

Jeff Prucher



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