Mebbeso (1893, 1904)

[Sam Clements]

Aw, c'mon, Barry.  Tell us where you went to High School.  It's the "in"
thing to do.  :)
----- Original Message -----
From: <Bapopik at AOL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 8:52 PM
Subject: Mebbeso (1893, 1904)


>    From William Safire's "On Language" column this Sunday (which also
> mentions Michael Quinion):
>
> MEBBESO
>
> Whenever I want to express skepticism, I eschew the dull maybe, the
sneering
> sure, the pompous perhaps and turn to the dialect compound mebbeso.
Readers
> have asked for its derivation.
>
> Could it be from the Maybeso Valley on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska?
> Creeks in that state leading to some unknown outlet sometimes carry that
name.
> Also, in a 1938 Oklahoma slave narrative, an aged woman named Lucinda
Davis,
> raised by Creek Indians, is quoted as saying, ''Maybeso dey buy demselves
out.''
> William Sydney Porter -- O. Henry -- used it in a 1907 Western short
story.
>
> I'm not from the Southwest or Alaska, and it is unlikely that I picked up
> this frontier-ish locution at the Bronx High School of Science. But I was
an avid
> fan of the radio series ''The Lone Ranger'' and may have picked it up from
> dialogue placed in the mouth of the faithful sidekick, Tonto. That's
> speculative. Could be. Mebbeso.
>
>
>
>    This isn't fit to print, but here goes:
>
>
>    28 December 1893, WEEKLY GAZETTE STOCKMAN (Reno, Nevada), pg. 4, col.
6:
>    "Yesh, heap satisfact' man, an' all Injun like 'um," replied Dave.
"But
> what I hear 'bout Tom Wren, lib Eureka?  Mebbe so he run Gubnor, I do'
know."
>
>
>    9 October 1904, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 3, col. 4:
>    MEBBESO HE CATCHUM SLANG.
> From "As a Chinaman Saw Us."
>    Heathen Chinee--It is very dull this week, Miss--...
>