siditty, saditty (1963), siddity (1965)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 20 Jul 2005 02:45:33 -0400, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>I see four words with similar application, in approximately the same
>milieu. Can we etymologize any of them?
>
>"Dicty"/"dickty".
>
>DARE speculates < Scots "dicht" (= "dight"). Hard to see the exact
>evolution ... but note the Scots expression "dichty water English"
>meaning "the affected speech of a Scot trying to sound English"
>("Concise Scots Dictionary").
>
>"Hinkty"/"hincty".
>
>It has been speculated to be from "henk"/"hink" = "hesitation". But one
>might also consider a connection with 'obsolete' Scots "hichty" =
>"haughty". I see the form "hicty" once at N'archive (1929): just a
>typo.? One might also ask whether there was ever "hichty-dichty" or so
>(cf. "hoity-toity") to explain both "hincty" and "dicty".

Any possible connection here with the derogatory terms "dinky" and
"hunky"? Both appear in the glossary accompanying Rudolph Fisher's _The
Walls of Jericho_ (1928), listed under "boogy" as "synonyms of Negro".
Probably unrelated -- HDAS guesses that "dink(y)" is an alteration of
"dinge"/"dingy", and "hunky" of course has that whole Hungarian lineage.

>"Siditty"/etc.
[...]
>"Arnchy".
[...]

Plus "uppity" and "biggity", which Doug mentioned in another post. And
where does "muckety-muck" fit into all of this? Any significance to the
fact that Claude McKay spelled it as "mucty-muck" in _Home to Harlem_
(1928), with that "-cty" ending reminiscent of "dicty" and "hincty"?

Getting away from "-(i)ty" forms, another snobbish term is "kack", listed
in Fisher's glossary as "extreme sarcasm for _dicty_."  And then there's
"astorperious", previously discussed here.


--Ben Zimmer