"sike"

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Tue Jan 16 23:00:16 UTC 2007


back in 2005 we had a discussion of retro "psych(e)", that is,
sentence-final "psych" or "psyche" (in print, /saik/ in
pronunciation) used to retract a statement, the way retro "not"
does.  now victor steinbok reports the spelling "sike", as in the
following head on a paul kiel story:

   Doolittle: I'm a New Man -- SIKE!

   http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002333.php

there's also an urban dictionary entry for "sike":

   http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=sike

one of the definitions there identifies it as being from the late 80s
and early 90s, but it's clearly still hanging around.

arnold

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