"Hunc over de" clubs, NY 1736?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/4/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> -----
> http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/s5-VI/157/534-a
> _Notes and Queries_, 5th S. VI, Dec. 30, 1876, p. 534, col. 1
> "HUNK O' DEE." -- This is the singular name of a boys' game in
> Pennsylvania which is very similar to "I spy." Instead of saying "I
> spy Brown, Jones, or Robinson," as the case may be, we say "Hunk o'
> Dee Brown," &c.
[snip]

The name of the game was also spelled "hunk-a-dee" in the Philadelphia
area, as found in these two books:

_History of Old Germantown_ (1907), Naaman H. Keyser, et al.
http://books.google.com/books?id=8dgLAAAAYAAJ

_Early Reminiscences._ (1927), Samuel L Parrish.
http://books.google.com/books?id=s3BEAAAAMAAJ


--Ben Zimmer

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