Query: Origin of "oops"

[Baker, John]

        Merriam-Webster takes oops or whoops only back to 1933, so it doesn't seem to be as old as all that.  There are online takes on oops-a-daisy at http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000224 and http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ups1.htm.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Cohen, Gerald Leonard
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 9:33 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Query: Origin of "oops"


One of my Etymology students today asked me about the origin of "oops."
Supposedly this is a natural exclamation, but are we sure of this?  Are there any articles on the origin of interjections such as "oops"? And what in the world is going on with "oops-a-daisy"?

Gerald Cohen