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

[Barnhart]

See The Barnhart Dictionary Companion (Vol. 12.4, c. 2000):

clue camp
clue train
     get (or be) on the clue train
     board (or ride) the clue train
     take a ride on the clue train
     buy (or get) a ticket on the clue train
     buy a (or one's) ticket for the clue train
     miss the clue train
     clue train is pulling out

Regards,
David K. Barnhart

barnhart at highlands.com


American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Tuesday, July 19,
2005 at 1:25 PM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: have a clue (1978), "clue" compounds (1990-93)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Good stuff. Thanks for clueing us.
>
>JL
>
>Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
>Subject: have a clue (1978), "clue" compounds (1990-93)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>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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