bardacious (= bodacious??)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/18/06, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
>
> OED does not list bardacious, and has 1976 for this sense of bodacious.

DARE's got it from 1908, but with a rather different sense:

1908 _DN_ 3.292 eAL, wGA, _Bodacious_ ... Bold, unceremonious,
outright. Also _bardacious_.

> "FEDERAL FROLICS" New York | Barnard Bulletin | 1937-11-05 p. 2 col 4.
> "A DICTIONARY OF SLANG WORDS and phrases is being complied by the WPA
> Federal Writers' Project, and they want help. . . . From Harlem come
> words like "bardacious" (marvelous)."

This might relate to the 1935-36 cites I found for "bodacious" with
senses ranging from 'daring' to 'attractive'...

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0504E&L=ADS-L&P=R86


--Ben Zimmer

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