beezark (1919)

[Peter A. McGraw]

I'm trying to square the comments so far with my only previous encounter
with the word.  In one of my favorite books as a child, Secret of the
Ancient Oak, a large-format book with stunning illustrations by Wolo,
there's a character named Bezark (or Beezark) the Snifferpuss, who guards a
strategic gate that the main character, a monkey named Sir Archibald, must
pass on his quest to retrieve the king's crown.  Bezark is female and has
feline features.  Sir Archibald expresses surprise that she knew he was
coming, and she says, "I can smell 'em coming.  If I like 'em, I let 'em
through.  If I don't, I eat 'em."  Why Bezark, I wonder?  Maybe the author
(whose name I can't remember) heard the word or the surname and just liked
the sound of it.

Peter

--On Thursday, June 30, 2005 4:41 AM -0700 Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> No way to be certain, but Baer may well have coined it. It's rare in
> print, and I've never heard it used.
>
> Am surprised to find hundreds of Googits on "Bezark" as a surname.  The
> slang term would thus appear to be an arbitrary application of this.
>
> JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> ----------------------- Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: beezark (1919)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
>
> On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:47:35 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer
> wrote:
>
>> "Be(e)zark" (HDAS: "an odd or contemptible man or woman") was recently
>> discussed on Ray Davis' Pseudopodium blog:
>>
>> http://www.pseudopodium.org/ht-20050423.html#2005-05-11
>>
>> HDAS has it from ca1925 (Damon Runyon, _Poems for Men_).
>>
>> -----
>> 1919 _Atlanta Constitution_ 25 May B3/2 THE BUGS have no use for the
>> beezark who carries a picture of himself in the back of his watch. It's
>> a crippled loving cup that only has one handle.
>> ["Two and Three: Putting the Next One Over" by Bugs Baer]
>> -----
>
> Turns out this was one of Baer's favorite epithets (he was also partial to
> calling people "sapp"). Here are two more cites from his column:
>
> -----
> 1919 _Atlanta Constitution_ 26 May 8/4 Scientists still trying to dope out
> how a three-cushion beezark can miss a ball by 11 feet on a 10-foot table.
> -----
> 1919 _Atlanta Constitution_ 29 May 14/4 Saddest thing outside of a wet
> straw hat is to marry an old beezark for his money and not get it.
> -----
>
> Did Baer coin it, or just popularize it?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************