Boo

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 03/03/2001 10:52:35 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ezra_50 at HOTMAIL.COM writes:

> ""We didn't see boo," Dr. Sherrod said.
>
>  Has this been documented before?
>
>  I couldn't find the bare "boo" on an Internet search, but I did find
>  "diddly-boo" which would support an equivalence with "squat".
>
>  But I thought it was odd for the NYT just to hang that out there like it
>  would be familiar to all.

The following is doubtful, but still worth asking:

Is there any chance that "boo" is an Anglicization of Yiddish "bubkes"?
>From Leo Rosten _The Joys of Yiddish_
<quote>
    "bubkes" [also spelt in English] "bobkes"---Something trivial, worthless,
insultingly disproportionate to expectations. "I worked on it three
hours---and what did he give me?  BUBKES!"'
</quote>

                  - Jim Landau