Teen slang (1952): "nerd", "pashpie", "book gook", "jizzy", etc.

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>It's interesting to note that several of the slang terms mentioned in this
>article ("book gook", "wheel", "hubcap") also appeared in a short 1952
>film called "Young Man's Fancy", sponsored by the Edison Electric
>Institute.  (Fans of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" may be familiar with
>this, as it was shown in a 1994 episode.)  The film can be viewed on the
>Web via the Prelinger Archives:
>
>Part 1: <http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=1244>
>Part 2: <http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=1245>
>
>The film is designed to interest consumers in new electrical appliances,
>but it does so by telling the story of a teenager named Judy Adams who
>tries to attract her brother Bob's friend, a bookish engineer.  Judy's
>speech is laden with teen slang (or at least the filmmakers' idea of teen
>slang), much to her mother's consternation. ....

>"Schnuckel" is an interesting term, apparently a variant of Yiddish
>"schnook".

I agree.

>I have no idea why Judy calls Alex a "cool Jonah", though.

At N'archive I find two instances of "cool Jonah" = "smart dresser" or so.

Casual speculations are cheap enough, and here's one: the jazz trumpeter
Jonah Jones was already popular (played with Cab Calloway), and he was
"cool" enough (and a fancy dresser too, I think).

As for the "shafty convertible", I find "shafty" as a term of approbation
once at N'archive (I don't find the alternative possibility "shaftic"). A
casual speculation which may be pretty weak: perhaps from German "saftig"
(meaning "posh" or so in this case) (cf. English "zaftig").

The handsome nerd makes Judy feel "squishy" (she says). MW3 defines this as
"soft, yielding, and damp"/"clammily viscous". Who says the popular media
were prudish in the 1950's? (^_^)

Note that Judy's formation of the "square sign" has three steps (top,
sides, bottom): natural for synchronization with the incantation "four,
core, nerd" (= "4-cornered" = "square"): one of the candidate ancestors for
the word "nerd".

These are very interesting video-clips.

-- Doug Wilson