Ribbit! (1965)

[Jonathan Lighter]

The origin of the phrase, "A little bird told me."

JL

Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
Subject: Re: Ribbit! (1965)
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Wilson Gray:
>According to the literature available when and where I was a child,
>bullfrogs "croaked" the sound "jug-a-rum." Other, smaller frogs
>"chirrupped" and spring peepers, of course, "peeped."

Jonathan Lighter:
>Years ago (1992) I mentioned "ribbit" to Fred Cassidy. Either he was
>unfamiliar with it, or he had encountered it only recently.
>
>I do recall that he volunteered "jug-o'-rum" as his childhood frog sound.

"Jug o' rum" goes back to 1847 on the American Periodical Series:

-----
_The Cultivator_, Nov. 1847; Vol. 4, Iss. 11; p. 353, col. 2
Even the frogs sometimes seem to indulge a little in humorous or sarcastic
ditties, for one sings out, "Jug o' rum! jug o rum! jug o' dhrum!"--while
another answers--"Paddy got dhroonk, got dhroonk, 'oonk 'nk!"
-----

That appears in a piece entitled "Rural Sounds" that has some truly
bizarre onamatopoetic interpretations. Take this song of the "Bob
o'link", supplied by "a southern writer":

"Bobby Lincoln--look Mary Lincoln--velvet pantaloons and summer jacket,
ho!--Bobby Lincoln won't let Mary Lincoln gad about alone over clover top,
dock-weed, and apple tree--nor shall she marry Michael Mangel Wurtzel!"

The reader also learns of a doctor who hears the robin's song as "Kill
'em! kill 'em! cure 'em! cure 'em! give 'em physic, physic, physic!", and
a tailor who hears the sparrow's song as "Prick yer fin-ger, suck it, suck
it well!"


--Ben Zimmer


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