"Hunc over de" clubs, NY 1736?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 10/4/07, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
> There is mention of "hunkadee" in the _American Notes and Queries_
> from 1890, at Google Books. A connection to Bengali (or maybe Hindi)
> is presented. "Another country heard from!" as my card-playing crony
> used to say.

Yet another spelling is "hunkedee", as in this story about Quaker
children in Philadelphia:

1869 _Riverside Magazine for Young People_ June 242/1 Sometimes they
played "Hunkedee," and made such a noise that they had to be rung in
before their time by the head teacher.
[HNP Doc ID 728441322]

> Is there any record of the 19th century game actually being called
> "hunk over dee", or is it merely the judgement of some 19th century
> writer that the 19th century "hunk-a-dee"/"hunk o' dee" must be a
> contraction of the 18th century "hunk over dee"?

Here's one example (the game's not explicitly described, but it's in
the context of playground activities):

1842 _Spirit of the Times_ 5 Nov. 421/2 The festivities of the
occasion were prolonged to a late hour in the evening, and after
having bent his intense energies to his share in the performance of
"Buck! Buck! how many horns?" and the still more exciting
divertisement of "Hunk over Dee!" he returned home, reeking from his
exercise, with his head anointed with a moist molasses lump, which, in
the innocence of his heart, he had thrust into his cap out of sight of
his playmates.
[HNP Doc ID 792663732]


--Ben Zimmer

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