"boogobs" as a blend

[Gerald Cohen]

  My thanks to the people who responded on this term.  Joan Houston Hall
sent me an e-mail drawing attention to the entry  "beaucoup" in the
_Dictionary of American Regional English_, saying that it contains several
items similar to "boogobs."

    E.g.,  "bogoobs" (1958, jazz  musician's argot): "It's a mickey band,
but there's bogoobs bread."

    _DARE_ also presents the synonymous "boocoodles," which it explains as
a blend of "boocoo" (i.e., "beaucoup")  and "oodles" (abundance, lot).
This lends credence to the suggestion of Jesse Sheidlower and  Bethany
Dumas that "boogobs"  arose by blending ("beaucoup" in its Americanized
form "boocoo"  + "gobs").

----Gerald Cohen






gcohen at umr.edu