Tight = drunk

[Charles Doyle]

Larry, there's as much reason for skepticism about such "folk etiologies" of proverbs as there is for folk etymologies of words! Namely, a complete of evidence (and, in this instance, an absence of attestations from anywhere near the time of the purported reference).

In the present case, it seems to me not unlikely that the 'drunk' sense of "tight" is primary in the phrase "tight as Dick's hatband"--since "queer as Dick's hatband" and most recorded variants refer to states of abnormal mentality.

That's a promising suggestion--that "queer as Dick's hatband" might now be used with "queer" in the evolved sense, like "queer as a three-dollar bill."

--Charlie
_____________________________________________________________


---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 11:08:00 -0400
>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Tight = drunk
>
>
>At 9:54 AM -0400 5/2/07, Charles Doyle wrote:

>>The traditional form of the proverbial simile is "queer (odd, crazy) as Dick's hatband"--traceable back to the late 18th century in England.
>>
>>--Charlie
>>___________________________________________________________
>
>
>Here's Evan Morris, as The Word Detective, and indirectly Robert Hendrickson on both "tight" and "queer" versions of the hatband. (There are lots of other web references to the same story.)  Any reason for skepticism?
>
>================
>..."tight as Dick's hatband" is primarily a Southern expression here
>in the U.S. I say "here in the U.S." because, according to Robert
>Hendrickson's "Whistling Dixie, A Dictionary of Southern Expressions"
>(Pocket Books, $12.95), the phrase actually originated in Great
>Britain. The "Dick" in question was probably Oliver Cromwell's son
>Richard (1626-1712), who succeeded his father as ruler of England.
>Richard's brief reign, a matter of only seven months ending in his
>abdication, made him the object of popular contempt and the butt of
>many jokes. The unfortunate Dick's "hatband" was his crown, and the
>"tightness" was the discomfort and apprehension he was presumed to
>have felt. Variants on the joke at the time included another phrase
>sometimes still heard, "queer as Dick's hatband," referring to the
>preposterous course of Richard's reign.
>
>"Tight as Dick's hatband" made the leap across the Atlantic and took
>up residence in the American South, where, the Cromwell saga being
>largely unknown, it was taken as a folk expression denoting extreme
>tightness or, sometimes, stinginess. And now, if you'll excuse me, I
>have to return something to the store.
>===============
>
>I wonder whether "queer as Dick's hatband" might not now occur occasionally with a new sense, having shifted along with "queer" itself.
>
>LH

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