TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"

Baker, John JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM
Wed May 28 15:32:46 UTC 2014


Is "waddy" really commonly used?  I know it only because the cartoon character Scrooge McDuck (Donald Duck's uncle) says in Scrooge McDuck #386 (1952):  "And this dollar--1882! I got that in Montana where I punched cows while I looked for a homestead. The other waddies laughed at me when I filed on a claim that was all mountains and rocks. But I'd poked around and knew that under that scrubby grass was one-third of the world's copper!"  Carl Barks, the writer and artist, was born in Oregon in 1901, and I suppose that "waddy" must have had some currency there.

I thought that "wrangler" was the standard term for what is usually called a cowboy.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2014 7:26 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"

The inner-sanctum term, equivalent to "freak" among hippies and "cat" among
jazzmen is, or at least used to be, "waddy."

JL


On Tue, May 27, 2014 at 7:10 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
> Subject:      Re: TV ad: "... a real dude ranch"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Today, I found a line claiming "cowboy" should be used only as a verb
> among (whatever cowboys are supposed to be called).
>
> Bryce Andrews (http://www.waleslit.com/blog/):
> -----
> His co-workers there teach him how to worm a horse and ride through the
> cattle to “settle” them, and never to use the word “cowboy,” except as a
> verb.
> -----
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
> https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos
>
> On May 24, 2014, at 4:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sat, May 24, 2014 at 4:38 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> I thought a dude ranch was a place where cowboys did cowboy things.
> >
> >
> > Sigh! Well, those of us to whose eye the phrase, "Ken Maynard and Tarzan,
> > The Wonder Horse!", brings a tear of nostalgia for childhood past recall
> > the "dude ranch" as a vacation resort set up to resemble a "working
> ranch"
> > for the entertainment of "dudes" - i.e. swells, lames, squares - from the
> > effete east wanting all of the fun, but none of the work, of the cowboy
> > life on the western plains.
> >
> > In other words, cowboys did do cowboy things on a dude ranch, but only to
> > put on a show as entertainment for vacationing dudes. Cf. the
> > "professionals" working at ski resorts, for instance.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list