Antedating of spiggoty/spigotty (1900)

[Jonathan Lighter]

As I believe I once mentioned, "spiggoty"" was said to have been in use during the Spanish- American War, and this cite may be as close as we're going to get.

Anything pre-1921 on "gook" ?

JL

Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Sam Clements
Subject: Antedating of spiggoty/spigotty (1900)
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Nothing new except an earlier instance than my 1908 Panama story. This =
time from Puerto Rico.

Using Proquest, 20 May 1900 _New York Times_ pg 12 article entitled =
"LIGHT-HEARTED PORTO RICO"

<first syllable. Its origin is indefinite, but it may have come from the =
native ambition to speak English and to inform all comers of that =
desire. The native tongue, accustomed to soft letters, struggles hard =
with the k in "speak," and makes it sound like g cut off short. English =
is Ingles. When "speak English" encounters a Porto Ricon, the result =
may be not unlike "spiggely," which some Anglo-Saxon mind roughened into =
"spiggoty." Whatever the origin, one hears everywhere of spiggoty =
people, spiggoty money, and all else spiggoty. Everybody uses the term, =
the natives having almost accepted it as a proper disignation. If into =
some official document sent to Washington it should slip, the public may =
know that it has come to stay, and that a fresh coin has enriched the =
language.>>

Sam Clements

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