[Ads-l] Boo?

[Wilson Gray]

"it's a term of endearment"

And a term of address. Almost anything at all can be a term of address, as
according to the relationship between addressor and addressee. Back in the
'50's, when "black" was still the grossest of insults, a friend used to
address us other guys with "What's happening, blacker-than-me?"  A girl
used to address any random person as "honey-baby." Girls in general could
address a guy as "nigger-boy" - a term non-existent in any other
circumstance - if he was flirting with them.

On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 8:55 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> JL wrote:
> A Southern equivalent of "sweetie."
>
> I heard it some years back.
>
> I think "boo-boo" is synonymous, as in speaking to one's child.
>
>
> Yes, it's a term of endearment.
>
> My intuition is that _boo-boo_, of which _boo_ is a clip, is an
> alternative form of _bay-bay_ - nowadays spelled _bae-bae_ - a BE variant
> of _baby_. All of the variants have been ordinary in BE as long as I've
> been hearing English spoken by black people. I wouldn't be surprised if it
> these forms went back to slavery. It can last as a nickname into childhood
> and even into adulthood. I was once my mama's "bay-bay" and my
> half-brothers, one 62 and the other 63, are still "Bay-Bay" to this day,
> though one of them signs his e-mails "_BB_," as in "BB King." OTOH,
> Beatrice [be-AT-triss] Green, a daughter of one our neighbors, back behind
> the Cotton Curtain, was always referred to as "Boo-Boo" or as simply "Boo."
>
> As to whether this is also general Southern, I don't know.
>
> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 12:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> A Southern equivalent of "sweetie."
>>
>> I heard it some years back.
>>
>> I think "boo-boo" is synonymous, as in speaking to one's child.
>>
>> Too lazy to investigate further.
>>
>> JL
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 11:46 AM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:
>>
>> > Radley?
>> > Dave Hause
>> > -----Original Message----- From: Dan Goncharoff
>> > Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2017 8:01 AM
>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> > Subject: Boo?
>> >
>> >
>> > Read this morning:
>> >
>> > https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/omarosa-manig
>> > ault-newman-nabj.html
>> >
>> > When Mr. Gordon said she was wrong, she replied, "I have it on tape,
>> boo."
>> > His response: "OK, boo, plat it."
>> >
>> > DanG
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>> > 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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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