"Slide down my cellar door" --> "most beautiful word" myth?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Mon Mar 17 19:58:06 UTC 2014


On Mar 17, 2014, at 3:39 PM, W Brewer wrote:

> LH:  <<But which came first, the Bilco door or the (Sgt.) Bilko < Bulkhead
> door?>>
> WB:  When did you first hear of [BILKO DORE]? Before the heyday of Ernie
> Bilko ('55-'59), during or after? Because, according to their website, <<The
> Bilco Company has served the building industry since 1926.>>

OK, it was just my reanalysis then, not Bilco's.  I fully acknowledge that I never imagined that Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko, or "bilk" the verb, had anything to do with the doors in question other than phonologically.  But leaving Bilko aside, is "Bilco", the company name, related to "Bulkhead"?

LH

P.S.  You may be right about why Sgt. Bilko got his name; after all, there's not much question about Private Doberman.
> <
> http://www.bilco.com/foundations/store/storepage.asp?page=aboutus>
> If <Bilco> was the original 1926 name (? from <BUILDing + COmpany), then
> the company logo would have preceded tv's Sgt Bilko 1955-1959.
> WB associates <Sgt Bilko> with <bilk> (to cheat, 16th c.), but he is such
> an iconic, lovable con-artist. The <Sgt Bilko> cachet evidently outweighs
> the malodor of <bilk> for the <Bilco Company> to continue using such a
> trade name.
> More curious and more curious.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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