saditty, hincty + dicty

[Wilson Gray]

For me, it's pronounced as "dick-ty." I'd be willing to spell the word
as "dickty." BTW, you may have noted that I spelled "saditty" as
"siditty." My only motive for spelling it that way is the fact that it
corresponds more closely to my personal pronunciation than "saditty"
does.

-Wilson Gray

On Jul 24, 2005, at 6:27 AM, Margaret Lee wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: saditty, hincty + dicty
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> 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:
>
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>> 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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