If U Seek Amy

[Baker, John]

To clarify, Google Books does have one apparently pre-Joyce use, from the 1912 Decennial Record of the Princeton class of 1901:  "If you see Kay Swain, tell him to mail me at once the fifty cents I won from him 
in the Yale game at Princeton, when we bet on who led the Princeton batting ...
 
My assumption is that this is not a pun on "fuck," but it's hard to be sure, and this is all that Google Books gives me.
 
 
John Baker

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Baker, John
Sent: Thu 1/22/2009 9:52 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: If U Seek Amy




        While I don't want to stand in the way of further research, I
suspect that it cannot now be determined whether this is something Joyce
made up or is instead what it purports to be, a clever vulgar street
rhyme.  FWIW, Google Books has nothing earlier, but that's to be
expected and is consistent with both possibilities.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of James Harbeck
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:36 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: If U Seek Amy

>High-class indeed -- Joycean, even, with its echo of "If you see Kay"
>from _Ulysses_.

And I don't think he made it up, either... Don't forget its companion,
though: "If you see kay. Tell him he may. See you in tea.
Tell him from me."

James Harbeck.

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