have a clue (1978), "clue" compounds (1990-93)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Good stuff. Thanks for clueing us.

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: have a clue (1978), "clue" compounds (1990-93)
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HDAS has the imperative "get/catch a clue" from 1981 (in Connie Eble's
"Campus Slang"). Here's "have a clue" in a 1978 article on Harvard's
baseball team, though the sense isn't entirely clear (perhaps just a
playful reversal of a negative polarity item?):

-----
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=117575
Harvard Crimson, April 25, 1978
On the Road With the 'Crimson Dogs'

Sayings: "That's me." "Don't get it bent." "Have a clue." "Have an idea."
"Have a day." "Have a weekend." "That's that beauty of it." "How gay is
that?" "Atsaboy." "It's just that simple." "In my face." "In your eye."
"Take me deep."
"Have a" is basically used in front of anything you want to ridicule.
"Don't get it bent" is the shortened form of "Don't get your nose bent,"
which is supposedly what happens to people when they're mad.
-----

(Note also the early use of "gay" = 'stupid, uncool', matching the
OED/HDAS 1978 cite from Skateboard Magazine.)

I recall further elaborations on the "clue" theme in the '80s, e.g.,
"Here's a quarter, (go) buy a clue." The early '90s saw the popularization
of various compound forms: the clueless one needed to pick up the "clue
phone", take a ride on the "clue bus/train", or get whacked with a "clue
bat/stick" or "clue by four". Here are the earliest cites on the Usenet
archive:

clue phone (Jay Hinkelman on rec.arts.drwho, 3/20/90)
clue bus (Jeff Anderson on soc.singles, 4/13/90)
clue train (Tezcatlipocateopixque on soc.motss, 6/7/91)
clue bat (Vrykolakas on alt.pagan, 3/21/92 and soc.motss, 3/23/92)
clue by four (Erik Seaberg on alt.folklore.computers, 4/1/92)
clue stick (STella on alt.sex.bondage, 6/4/93)

Anything earlier for these? I see Grant Barrett initiated a thread on
"clue" compounds back in 1999 (the same year that "the cluetrain
manifesto" was released -- see: ).


--Ben Zimmer


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