Attention Arnold!

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 10:04:11AM -0800, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
> On Nov 30, 2004, at 11:34 AM, Alice Faber wrote:
>
> >Spotted on usenet:
> >
> >"the same-oh-same-oh does get really, really boring!"
>
> into my files it goes...
>
> i'm always a bit trepidatious about posting a new assortment of
> eggcorns, because new ones then start streaming in.  like, i never
> catch up!

You know, when Alice first posted this, I thought, "Why does
she think it's of interest to Arnold?"

Now I realize you guys think it's an eggcorn.

It probably is an eggcorn, if you just saw this on Usenet.
But--and as we discussed here at some point in a thread I
now can't find--there's a good chance that "same-oh, same-oh"
is in fact the _origin_ of "same-old same-old", the former
first appearing as pidgin in military use in East Asia, the
latter being a folk-etymology.

If this is true, and if the Usenet example is a re-coinage,
then it would be in the unusual position of being a
folk-etymology that happens to be the real etymology. The
mind boggles.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED