Hootnanny (1918)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great quote, Doug, but in my survey of one million AEF sources I never found an ex. of this particular meaning.  It's may well be local or ad hoc.

Can anybody beat OED's 1917 "cootie" ("coot" would count), or cast light on its sugg. derivation from Malay "kutu"?

JL

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Douglas G. Wilson"
Subject: Hootnanny (1918)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here "hootnanny" means "louse", apparently. Perhaps this is a
specialization of the usual early sense
"whatchamacallit"/"doohickey"/"thingamajig".

----------

_Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News_, Lincoln NE, 14 Feb. 1918:
p. 2, col. 4:

[by "Bugs" Baer, from New York]

<without hootnannies. A hootnanny is what the soldiers call a cootie.>>

----------

-- Doug Wilson

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com