Etymology of "wacko"

[Joel S. Berson]

And why is the earliest citation in OED2 s.v. this -o suffix merely
1967?  (Examples cited are earlier, e.g. ammo.)

Joel

At 1/30/2006 11:18 AM, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Etymology of "wacko"
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>         Should the -o ending be considered so limited?  Think of the
>Marx Brothers, with Harpo so-called because he played a harp, Chico
>liked the chicks (it was originally Chicko, but the k was quickly
>dropped), and so forth.  There's an account of their naming in Harpo's
>autobiography, Harpo Speaks; I don't have it available, but they
>certainly took on these names well before 1935.
>
>John Baker
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>Of Joel S. Berson
>Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 10:50 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Etymology of "wacko"
>
>OED2:  wack (n):  An eccentric or crazy person; a madman, a crackpot.
>     1938 'E. Queen' Four of Hearts (1939) i. 9 All you wacks act this
>way at first. Them that can take it snaps out of it.
>
>OED2 dates "wacky (a)"from 1935.
>
>But -- the -o seems to be derived not only from adjectives with negative
>connotations, but also from (the first syllable of) nouns, as in
>"klepto", from "kleptomaniac"?
>
>Joel
>
>At 1/30/2006 09:28 AM, RonButters wrote:
>Thanks for the explanation. I somehow missed the step that e.g.
>STINKO is immediately derived from STINKY, not STINK. Still, in that
>case, how is WACKY derived from WACK? What is a "wack"? Didn't that have
>something to do with women in the army during WWII?
>
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