Ribbit! (1965)

[Mark A. Mandel]

        [Dennis R. Preston:]
>Not "greedep" down Louisville way. It was clearly "needeep" (with the
>obvious association with "kneedeep").

        [Ben Zimmer:]
Do we have Joel Chandler Harris to thank for "knee-deep"?
 <<<<<

Laura Ingalls Wilder, if I recall correctly, wrote in one of the books of
the Little House series, her fictionalized memoirs of growing up on the
frontier in the years after the Civil War, of hearing a bullfrog's croak as
a warning: "Knee-deep! Knee-deep! Better go round!"

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]