Dealybob

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 5 Nov 2003, James Parish wrote:

#Patty Davies wrote:
#
#> name for or the description of it is too long .  And I assumed that this is
#> where 'bobbleheads' came from.
#
#I distinguish the two: "dealybobber" refers, as you say, to antennae on
#springs or the like, and is (to the best of my knowledge) a relatively recent
#term - I'd guess the late '70s or so.

That matches my memories, though I think of it spelled "deely..."; I
don't know if I've ever seen it written before.

I don't see it as a necessary ancestor to "bobbleheads", but both of
them < "bob" (intransitive verb) ~= 'move freely and rhythmically up and
down'.

-- Mark A. Mandel