siditty, saditty (1963), siddity (1965)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Let's hear it for Proquest's Ethnic NewsWatch. The archive of the _New
Pittsburgh Courier_ easily antedates DARE/OED's 1967 cite for "siditty"
and its variants. All but one of the cites below come from Whitelaw
MacBride's "People in the News" column, which looks like a real goldmine
for AAVE slang.


* siditty

1963 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 6 Apr. 19 (Proquest) How a flock of members
in the well-known "siditty" national women's organization is planning to
desert to another group of the same ilk.

1963 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 27 Apr. 11 (Proquest) After that recent stag
party in that exclusive Pittsburgh club, the siditty folks who rented it
out the next night claimed that the joint was "dirty, nasty and filthy,"
and complained loud and long.

1963 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 2 Nov. 15 (Proquest) How about the ruckus in
that siditty Baltimore crap and poker game wherein D.C. cops, doctors and
social workers really go at the bones in "dicty" fashion.


* saditty

1963 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 28 Sep. 18 (Proquest) Schenley, stronghold
of this city's "saditty" set, was invaded one recent Sunday afternoon by
bearers of "way out" paintings, carvers of futuristic tree trunks, and
be-sneakered exponents of "beatnik" poetry.

1964 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 25 Jan. 10 (Proquest) One saditty matron
under fire claims she does so because her tan acquaintances "might not
know how to talk" to her spouse's white colleagues.

1965 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 9 Jan. 9 (Proquest) Wasn't that Eastern
barmaid surprised when a few of her more down-to-earth customers took her
up on a casual invitation to "drop by the house during the holidays."
Unfortunately, they turned up when some of her saditty relatives were
there.


* siddity

1965 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 27 Feb. 2 (Proquest) Siddity matrons along
the East Coast have found themselves at a point of no return, so far as
their ultra-ultra clubs are concerned.

1965 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 13 Mar. 2 (Proquest) The husband and wife
team, both of whom have since remarried, are having their squabbles over
the house they still own together in a siddity Pittsburgh neighborhood.

1965 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 1 May 11 (Proquest) Friends of a well known
East Coast matron are sympathizing over her recent predicament. It is
being said when she approached her jazzy mate about playing around with a
gal who once came close to making the "siddity" set, he proceeded to put a
few lumps on her head.

1965 _New Pittsburgh Courier_ 13 Nov. 13 (Proquest) A lot of the siddity
set expressed alarm over the actions of another cullud group meeting at
the same hotel in a Southern city recently. While the siddity folks were
walking around proud as peacocks in their furs, their real live country
cousins were sitting in the lobby eating box lunches and taking naps in
those big plush chairs.


--Ben Zimmer