Speaking of "gay," etc.

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 22, 2004, at 3:14 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Speaking of "gay," etc.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Wilson Gray [mailto:wilson.gray at RCN.COM]
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 2:00 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Speaking of "gay," etc.
>>
>
>>
>> On the other hand, HDAS does have "dookie" and DARE doesn't.
>> Until very recently, when I heard it used by adults on the
>> Jerry Springer show, I thought that dookie was a children's
>> "bad word" used only in East Texas. Needless to say, I was
>> surprised to see it in HDAS. Either the word has spread far
>> and wide since the '40's or my never having heard the word
>> used outside of East Texas until a couple of years ago was a
>> complete accident.
>>
>
> The punk band Green Day had a best selling album called "Dookie" in
> 1994;
> that probably pushed the word into greater usage.
>

As fate would have it, reading an article about Green Day that
mentioned that very album title is what prompted me to check out
"dookie" in the Twin Bibles. Furthermore, it was while paging my way to
"dookie" that I ran across "doofunny."

-Wilson Gray