saditty, hincty + dicty

[Margaret Lee]

What is the pronunciation of 'dicty' ?  --'dick-ty' or 'dike-ty'?
This is the only one of the three I'm not familiar with.


Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
FWIW, I grew up hearing "hincty" - the term favored by my mother,
b.1914 in Longview, TX - and "dicty" at home. I learned "siditty" on
the street in St. Louis during the '40's. As a consequence, until this
thread began, I'd never put "siditty" into the same class as the other
two. OTOH, sixty years is plenty (of) time for a minor shift in usage
to occur!

BTW, is anyone else familiar with the phrases, "get/have (one's) habits
on" and "get beside oneself" (sic; *not* to be confused with, e.g. the
sE "beside oneself with anxiety") said of, or even to, someone who's
acting above his station?

-Wilson Gray

On Jul 23, 2005, at 11:16 AM, Barbara H Hudson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Barbara H Hudson
> Subject: saditty, hincty + dicty
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> From my research on African American female language:
>
> Closely associated with the "proper" are the set of adjectives
> that follow. The have one thing in common: they can de defined as a
> social commentary (negative)about another person or persons. The
> three words are hincty, dicty, and saditty (spelled different ways).
> Roughly translated all of the them mean "snobbish" "stuck up" or
> "thinking one is better than someone else" All of the examples below
> come from later works. The speakers are adult females.
>
> The words in CAPS ARE MY COMMENTS TO THE LIST
>
> 4. Hincty, that's why. Comes from handling money all day.
> (Morrison, Jazz, 19) SAID OF A WOMAN
>
> 5. an eye on these hincty misbehaving brats (Shange, Betsey,
> 187) SPOKEN BY A WOMAN WHO TOOK CARE OF SPOILED MIDDLE CLASS AFRICAN
> AMERICAN CHILDREN
>
> 6. like dicty whores (Guy, Measure, 109) A WOMAN'S
> DESCRIPTION OF DOLLS THAT WERE DRESSED IN EXPENSIVE BUT GAUDY CLOTHES
>
> 7. like them sadditty kids at school (Williams, 49)
>
> 8. Surely you could put that ciddity [saditty]old woman
> down. (Shange, Betsey 187)
>
> Barbara Hill Hudson
> http://www.africanamericanfemalecommunication.com
>

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