possible antedate of indiscriminative "whatever"?
Wilson Gray
hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Mon Jul 24 03:05:16 UTC 2006
NOTARY SOJAC, A!
-Wilson
On 7/23/06, sagehen <sagehen at westelcom.com> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> Subject: Re: possible antedate of indiscriminative "whatever"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >The semantics of interjections can be so slippery!
> >
> >I remember, in the 4th or 5th grade, encountering the word "pshaw" in a
> >spelling textbook (are those still called "spellers"? Do they still
> >EXIST?). Half a century later, I still have never heard anyone SAY
> >"pshaw"; I don't know how it would sound (in what dialect) or precisely
> >what it would mean . . . .
> >
> >--Charlie
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The P is silent. I don't think I've heard anyone say this since 1945, when
> my father, who used the expression "Oh, pshaw!" often, died. He was born
> in 1878 in Ohio, so his idiolect exhibited a lot of 19th Cent features
> that were otherwise rarely heard in the middlewestern speech of my
> childhood.
> As for meaning.......? Hmmm. I suppose it stood for "what a shame" most
> often, but sometimes merely casting doubt, as in "oh, pooh." My brother &
> I at that time would probably have said "oh, foo!" after the comic strip
> "Smokey Stover."
> AM
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> W stands for >:< War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts >:<
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
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Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have
found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be
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