NYT on Daniel Cassidy--("Big Onion" = NYC)

[Wilson Gray]

"Anonn" is pronounced ['an at n]. As for whether a unilingual speaker of
Irish would confuse this or replace this with ['^nj at n], further
deponent sayeth not, though I do wonder why such a speaker would say
"(Big) Anonn" instead of "Anonn (Mór), if he was speaking in Irish.

-Wilson

On 11/10/07, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: NYT on Daniel Cassidy--("Big Onion" = NYC)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm not sure how long I'll continue this, but I'd like to start treating  Cassidy's alleged examples of Irish influence on English--i.e., his own material, not the items of others that are already recognized in the scholarly literature. If any of Cassidy's new items pan out, I'll rejoice. Meanwhile,  let's begin with "Big Onion," which he first says (p.90) is a moniker for New York City and then derives as follows:
> "(Big) Anonn...(big) beyond, far side... NYC was the 'big beyond' to millions of Irish immigrants, who journey anonn tar aigéan...across the ocean to the far side."
>
>       That's the whole relevant treatment; Cassidy's additional comments about Big Onion Walking Tours present nothing of etymological interest.
>
>      Now, "Big Onion" (NYC) doesn't turn up in the dictionaries of slang I checked, and so I turned to Google, where I found (among other entries) _Big Onion Guide to New York City: Ten Historic Tours_, by Seth Kamil * Eric Wakin.  The blurb says: "Long before it was dubbed the Big Apple, New York City was called the Big Onion..."
>
>        Long before? For almost twenty years I've been working on "The Big Apple" (albeit not full-time, and with major contributions from Barry Popik), and I don't recall coming across any early attestations of "The Big Onion" (NYC), i.e. 1920s (or earlier), 1930s, etc.  I strongly suspect that its appearance is quite recent, no earlier than the 1980s, but in any case not preceding the numerous early attestations of "The Big Apple" or (in lower-case letters, "the big apple." = NYC racetracks).
>
>     In HDAS (Jonathan Lighter's excellent _Historical Dictionary of American Slang_) I don't find "Big Onion" (NYC), but I do find (under "onion"): "big onion" = "an important person or thing," with just two examples:
>
> 1942 Davis & Wolsey, _Call Home Madam_ 220: A parade in which he was the biggest onion, the highest paid attraction.
>
> 1970: Newman & Benton, _Crooked Man_ (film): He seemed to think it was pretty big onions that you built it yourself."
>
>    The following questions now come to mind:
>
> 1) When exactly is "Big Onion" (NYC) first attested?
>
> 2) If the first attestations are relatively recent, this would be well after the large migrations of the Irish to America. Would an Irish person traveling to the U.S in, say, the 1980s, be at all likely to say in Irish that he's going to the great beyond and have it misunderstood as "Big Onion," thereby leading to the moniker?
>
> 3) Is it not possible that "Big Onion" (NYC) was simply modeled on the already well established "Big Apple," somewhat like "The Big Orange" (Los Angeles) is?
>
> 4) Is there any early evidence at all (e.g. letters, diaries, newspapers) of Irish people speaking of America as "The Big Onion," or "The Big Anonn"?
>
> 5) In other words, is there even a shred of evidence to support Cassidy's belief that "Big Onion" owes its origin to the Irish language?
>
> Gerald Cohen
> Professor of German and Russian
> Research specialty: Etymology, especially of British and U.S. slang
> Editor, Comments on Etymology (1971ff.) and Studies in Slang monograph series (vols. 1-7; vol. 7: co-authored with Barry Popik)
> Department of Arts, Languages, and Philosophy
> University of Missouri-Rolla
> Rolla, MO 65409
> e-mail: gcohen at umr.edu
>
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