Being Googled

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>"Barney Google and his goo-goo-googly eyes" (a song whose age I won't even
>estimate) implies that "Google" (a proper name) has spawned the adjective
>"googly" and therefore it should not be improbable that someone would also
>use it as a verb ("Barney googled Miss X...").  Actually this derivation fits
>your context better than a derivation from the name of the Internet search
>engine.  In a bar (particularly if the bar in question is notorious as a
>pick-up bar) one is more likely to notice having eyed in a strange or
>remarkable manner than to notice one's Web pages have just been examined.

I think the Google search engine is named after the word "googol" meaning a
huge number, but I think the name -- probably deliberately -- also
resembles "googly eyes" and/or the verb "goggle" = "stare" (or "look").

As for those googly eyes, the exact etymology is not immediately clear to
me, but Lighter's HDAS shows "goo-goo" (transitive verb) = "to cast amorous
glances at" [which probably could have occurred as "google" too!]: e.g.
(1901) "She put her Chin on his shoulder and Goo-Gooed him and he lost the
Power of Speech."

This reminds me of the German folk/drinking song beginning "Maedele, rueck,
rueck, rueck an meine gruene Seite" [something like "Girl, shift, shift,
shift against my green (i.e., friendly) side"] which has a stanza beginning
"Maedele, guck, guck, guck in meine schwarzen Augen" [as I recall: "Girl,
look, look, look into my black eyes"] ... maybe the goo-goo eyes were
guck-guck eyes.

With reference to another thread, the song seems to be about Knudelei =
canoodling.

-- Doug Wilson