nookie

[Jonathan Lighter]

I remember rejecting this cite as an ex. of "nookie" because the connection seemed a little far-fetched; but maybe I should have kept it as a wishy-washy bracketed non-example. As my command of Japanese is limited to "sayonara," "arigato,"  "sushi," and (here's a blast from the past) "Rotsa ruck!" I second Jon's request for information.

  Boyer's are the only occurrence of "John Nugi" and "Johnnie Nookee" I've seen.  FWIW, since its first appearance in pint in the 1920s, "nookie" does not seem to be associated especially with the navy, the merchant marine, any of the armed forces, or even the West Coast. And since the number of American sailors and others who might have encountered the Japanese term(s) in the 19th C. was very small, I let the quotation go.  Possibly this was short-sighted of me.

  JL

  Jonathon Green <slang at ABECEDARY.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Jonathon Green
Subject: nookie
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I offer the following for comments.

1868 Boyer diary in ed. Barnes _Naval Surgeon (1963) 16 Oct. 102: A
grand ‘John Nugi,’ or, as some call it, a ‘Johnnie Nookee.’ In order for
me to explain said affair, it will be necessary for me to state that a
‘Nugi’ [Nugu, meaning to take off (one’s clothing)] consists of
nothing more ot less than a fine display of human form divine of ye fair
but frail daughters of Japan. [...] Every girl follows a leader, and if
she makes a mistake, why, she forfeits a portion of her clothing. This
little game continues until everyone of the girls is as naked as she was
when she came into the world. By this time the girls are about half full
of saki; the gentlemen drink enough to make them feel their oats. As
soon as the girls are naked, why, so soon do they commence to perform
all manner of tricks, dancing in the most voluptuous manner, placing
themselves in all the different kinds of attitudes that one might
imagine men and women would take whilst having carnal communication with
each other

As things stand the cited first uses of 'nookie' are 1928, for the
person, usu. a woman, seen as a sexual object and 1930 for the act
itself. The etymology is considered to be unknown.

The question is, of course, could this be the root of the 20C term? I
know Jon Lighter has, like me (or more properly my parttner Susie Ford)
read the Boyer diaries. However since this cite doesn't appear in HDAS I
assume he rejected it. I, on the other hand, am very tempted. The
problem on a personal level is that I have no Japanese, nor yet any
knowledge of Japanese culture at the time. The lexicographical problem
is that there does appear to be a suspiciously lengthy gap between the
mid-19C sailors' use of the term in Japan, and it's (re-)emergence in
the late 1920s. However, since we dealing in slang, and sexual slang in
particular, this is hardly insurmountable.

Any thoughts, anyone?

JG

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