Re" "no biggie" PLUS Beware....

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Fri Aug 29 15:32:43 UTC 2008


"No biggie!" is not quite a simple negationm of "biggie," a "big or important thing."  "No biggie!" (as usually employed and, I deduce, as used in _Mad Men_) means, "It is of no concern," which is not quite congruent with "It is of no importance."

The yearly layoff, e.g.,  in the 1965 Ron adduces, is a "biggie" - a *sizable* one.  Had the writer said "it's no biggie," my distinct impression is that it would mean "of no concern to me or us" and not "it isn't a sizable one."
 
A subtle distinction, perhaps, but one that helps explain why "no biggie" is not exactly coeval with other uses of "biggie."  People used "biggie" rather trivially to refer to physical size or degree of  power infuence (as when it is a synonym of "bigshot").  Only later did it generalize to matters of concern, most usu. in the negative.
 
WorldCat shows that the book Ron cites, _The Earch Changers_ really was published in 1957.  But I recall several occasions when a "snippet" view on Google Books came from an entirely different book.  Most reecently (last few days) the snippet view had to do with porn or bikinis while the supposed sourcehad been published in the 1850s.
 
Beware snippet views!
  
JL




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