Etymology of bozo (Was: Borrowing pronouns]

[Jim Rader]

This is pretty far off comparative and historical Indo-European, but
as long as the subject has been broached:

The history of <Bozo> as a clown name has never been thorougly
researched (as far as I know), though it's certain there has been
more than one Bozo in the clown world.  Commercially, <Bozo> was
introduced in 1940 when Capitol Records began a series of childrens'
records using this name.  In 1949 Capitol hired an actor named Larry
Harmon to create a <Bozo> character for television.  Harmon bought
the licensing rights to the name from Capitol in the early 1950's and
has been associated with Bozo the Clown ever since (I believe he's
still alive), most notably in a long-running children's television
show initiated by WGN-TV in Chicago in 1960.  The original Bozo of
the Capitol recordings seems to have been an actual circus clown
named Edwin Cooper, who performed with Barnum and Bailey and Ringling
Brothers.  When he died in August, 1961, at the age of 41, newspaper
accounts claimed that both his father and grandfather performed as
<Bozo>--which would push the name back into the 19th century.
Determining whether this claim is true would require digging in
circus archival material--something I have never attempted.

Other than the clown name, there have been lots of imaginative
hypotheses about the origin of the American slangism.  The earliest
cite given in Jonathan Lighter's _Historical Dictionary of American
Slang_ is 1916, though the bibliography to Lighter's work is yet to
be published, and I'll believe the dates when I've checked the cites
out personally.  The earliest cite I've actually seen is from the
Dec. 11, 1920, issue of _Collier's_ magazine.

I believe that <Bozo> (with <z>, not <z-hacek>) has been used as a
Serb or Croat male given name--there are people on this list, such as
Alemko Gluhak, who could readily confirm this--but <bozo> has never
been used as an ethnic slur, to my knowledge.  Its meaning is
something like "oaf" or "lout" or "fool."

Probably more than anybody wanted to know.

Jim Rader

[ Moderator's comment:
  And probably all that needs to be said.  No further commentary on the
  etymology of _bozo_ will be entertained unless it provides insight into
  the workings of Indo-European society.
  --rma ]