bogeying=boogying

Tue Jun 21 22:19:12 UTC 2005

My experience as a trained language professional suggests that the epithet "boogie" was mainly used by lower-class thuggish types in the Northeast.  First printed cites are from the early '20s, IIRC, but if the ety. is correct it must be much older. My perception is that it's still around, but on the way out at last.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: bogeying=boogying
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On Jun 21, 2005, at 10:59 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: bogeying=boogying
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> My grandmother's NYC word for this (from her 1890s childhood) was
> "boogie."
>
> I did not know the same word (< "bogey") in a different sense as an
> ethnic epithet until I was a teenager.
>
> JL
>

I can understand that. I heard "boogie" used as a slur once in a movie
and I've read it in fiction. But I've never heard it used that way by
anyone in real life. I can't recall the title of the movie, but it was
released in 1950 and it was the first vehicle to pair Richard Widmark
and Sidney Poitier as its stars, if anyone cares. Rich was the
working-class, bigoted
white guy and Sid was [surprise!] the saintly, whiter-than-white, black
ER doctor who treated Rich after the white rioters lost to the black
rioters. The line was, I think, "I saw a boogie drivin' a Cadillac a
block long!"

-Wilson

> Amorelli wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Amorelli
> Subject: Re: bogeying=boogying
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I'm sorry but the only 'bogey' I'm familiar with...:))..is those
> little hard
> balls of snot that unpleasant kids in class used to squish under the
> surface
> of the desk tops for all-comers to find. Mind you, this is Brit.E.
> circa
> 1970s.
> M.I.Amorelli
> EAP, Faculties of Economics and Law,
> Sassari

Don't we call those "boogers" here in the colonies? FWIW, in BE,
"booger" can be used with a variety of meanings under various
conditions. E.g., when I was in the Army, a black NCO, noting my size -
6' 4" and 210 lbs. - exclaimed, "Damn! You a BIK[sic, via BE emotional
devoicing] booguh, aintcha?!"

-Wilson Gray

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael McKernan"
> To:
> Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2005 7:30 AM
> Subject: bogeying=boogying
>
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail
>> header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Michael McKernan
>> Subject: bogeying=boogying
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>>
>> Found this 'bogey' today while googling something else:
>>
>>> Report from the Florida Fiery Foods Show
>>> After an oyster dinner, I started bogeying on the dance floor with my
>>> niece Emily
>>> DeWitt, then with Mary Jane. No one there had ever seen me dance, ...
>>> www.fiery-foods.com/zine-industry/flashow.html - 12k - Cached -
>>> Similar
>>> pages
>>
>> Google hits: boogying 18,600
>> boogieing 7,490
>>
>> While there are nearly 14,000 google hits for 'bogeying', all that I
>> saw
>> (a
>> very brief glance) pertain to golf 'bogeys,' rather than the
>> 'boogie'-derived usage here, but at least some other boogie/bogeys
>> turn
>> up:
>>
>>> Midnight menu at Right Place
>>> Today, Chennai conjures images of BPOs, discothèques and party
>>> animals
>>> bogeying
>>> into the wee hours of the night. The city, indeed, never sleeps! ...
>>> www.chennaionline.com/hotelsandtours/
>>> Restaurants/2005/03rightplace.asp -
>>> 67k - Jun 17, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
>>>
>>> Discover Native America 2001
>>> ... just inches from the drummers, slamming, thrashing, striking the
>>> heat
>>> taut
>>> hides, the drums, suspended on wooden pegs, undulating, bogeying,
>>> shimmying. ...
>>> www.cgcas.org/dna.htm - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
>>>
>>> Jazz | JazzTimes Magazine > Reviews > Concert Reviews
>>> Jumping, twirling, dropping to their knees and just plain bogeying,
>>> the
>>> group
>>> worked up a sweat that of course led to their abandoning their fancy
>>> pinstripe ...
>>> www.jazztimes.com/reviews/ concert_reviews/detail.cfm?article=10318
>>> - 32k
>>> - Cached - Similar pages
>>>
>>> The Blues Audience newsletter
>>> Sugar Ray & The Bluetones got the crowd out on the floor, dancing,
>>> and
>>> kept them
>>> bogeying all night long. With "Monster" Mike Welch on guitar, ...
>>> www.bluesaudience.com/sugarray.htm - 14k - Cached - Similar pages
>>>
>>> DwightOzard.com | Lover's Quarrel Article: Dance, White Boy, Dance
>>> ...
>>> Call it what you want-"getting down," "bogeying," "tripping Dick
>>> Clark and
>>> the
>>> light-fantastic," whatever-but when James Brown comes on, there is
>>> only
>>> one ...
>>> www.dwightozard.com/lq-article.asp?id=78 - 22k - Cached - Similar
>>> pages
>>>
>>> USCG Auxiliary 1SR
>>> Bogeying on the tarmac.Tom Negri, FC 13-06 starting the twist
>>> contest, A
>>> closer
>>> view of the castle which captured the hearts of the kids. ...
>>> www.cgaux1sr.org/photo/d13Blessing/div13Blessing.htm - 11k - Cached -
>>> Similar pages
>>
>> Etc.
>>
>> Not sure if this qualifies for eggcorn status.
>>
>> Michael McKernan
>>
>>
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