nookie

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/19/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
>
>> A message on this list --
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0510A&L=ADS-L&P=R2440&I=-3
>> -- noted 1923 "nooking" = "petting" which seems (to me) a likely relative
>> -- conceivably ancestor -- of "nookie".
>
> Amateur slang collecting being what it is, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if
> this 1923 "nooking" was a misapprehension of "nookie."   E.g., "Maybe you'll
> get some nookie" overheard by an innocent parent as "nooking" in a "necking"
> sense.
>
>  No way to know.

I considered that possibility when I found the two 1923 cites, but the
author, Helen Bullitt Lowry, really seemed to know her flapper slang.
Another possibility is that Lowry knew of "nookie" but cleaned it up
as "nooking" to make it more transparent to readers. But I still
prefer to think of "nooking" as a transitional form on the way to
"nookie".


--Ben Zimmer

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