"Dittybop / Dittybopper"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Wilson. The military sense must be fairly obscure, since I just discovered it and it seems to go back to the '50s among Morse operators.  Pretty expressive, though.

As for "pimpmobile," it seems to have taken a full decade for your creation to have reached the print media.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
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When I was a teenager in the 'Fifties in St. Louis,
"dittybop(p)er"/diddybop(per)" was a fairly mild insult that meant
something like "wannabe hipster." There was no verb form.

Unfortunately, when I was in The War, I didn't have occasion to come
into contact with any Morse-code operators. More useless information:
when teletypy is heard on a voice channel, it sounds like Morse code to
the untutored ear. Or at least it did on the equipment available in the
late '50's.

-Wilson Gray


On Feb 1, 2005, at 8:26 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: "Dittybop / Dittybopper"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Have discovered that besides their tedious old meanings, so familiar
> that I needn't bore you with them, these words have been used in the
> military with the senses "high-speed Morse operator" and "high-speed
> Morse receiver/transmitter." To "dittybop" also means "to transmit
> Morse code at high speed."
>
> Can any of my distinguished colleagues and consultants add anything to
> the above from personal experience ?
>
> JL
>
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