"Au fait"

[Wilson Gray]

"The semantic development was: 'au fait': 'socially proper; genteel' (in
Louisiana French!) to 'white person.'"

As they used to say on Amos 'n' Andy, "Ain't dat sumpm?" Who'd a-thunk it?"

-Wilson


On 9/3/07, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Au fait"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> See my item "Black Slang _Ofay_ 'White Person' Derives From _Au Fait_ =
> 'Socially Proper, Genteel'", in _Studies in Slang, Part VI, =
> authored/edited by Gerald Leonard Cohen and Barry A. Popik.Frankfurt am =
> Main: Peter Lang, 1999, pp. 48-51.(earlier version in Comments on =
> Etymology, Feb. 1994, pp. 9-11.)
> =20
> The semantic development was: "au fait" socially proper; genteel" (in =
> Louisiana French!) to "white person."
> Cf. Duke Ellington's comment (_Music Is My Mistress_, 1973, p. 12): =
> "When I first went to Europe on the _Olympic_ in 1933, I felt so au fait =
> with all that silverware on the table." =20
> =20
>  Barry Popik contributed a very helpful March 14, 1896 cartoon with "au =
> fait."=20
> =20
> The poem Doug cites below is interesting, but I'd like to see what else =
> turns upbefore signing on to the poem's being significant for the =
> history of "ofay."  My initial reaction is that it's not necessary to =
> invoke the poem in order to explain the semantic development (in the =
> speech of blacks) "socially proper/correct" to "white person." How many =
> features in black slang of the first part of the 20th century were =
> produced by poems in newspapers? Btw, HDAS has 1925 as the first =
> attestation of "ofay" and the poem is from 1897. =20
> =20
> But a fresh look based on new material is always good.
> =20
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Douglas G. Wilson
> Sent: Sun 9/2/2007 10:07 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "Au fait"
>
>
>
> A while back I speculated that "ofay" =3D "white [person]" is derived
>
> from "au fait" in the sense "fashionable"/"proper" or so, a
> distinctively English-language word in this sense AFAIK (although it
> may have thought itself French). At least one other person (Gerald
> Cohen) had put forth the same hypothesis (or a very similar one) much
> earlier. The exact semantic connection is not clear, however,
> although various more-or-less plausible scenarios are available.
>
> I quote the beginning of an untitled (at least in this printing)
> poem: from N'archive:
>
> ----------
>
> _Trenton [NJ] Evening Times_, 30 July 1897: p. '4':
>
> <<W. J. H. in Phila. North American: / Oh, lynchings are au fait / In
> Dixey! / They've a hang-up every day / In Dixey! / The elite are
> always there / ....>>
>
> ----------
>
> The poem is of course sarcastic and harshly derogatory toward "Dixey"
> (or its "elite" anyway).
>
> "Au fait" appears in the first line; its pronunciation (with [the
> expected] second syllable stress) is pretty much specified.
>
> Somebody with bigger databases than mine might check to see whether
> there is evidence of wide propagation ... e.g., maybe the poem was
> quoted in the _Freeman_ or some similar publication.
>
> This poem or some similar item may have been a 'vector' whereby "au
> fait" came to be used for "white people" (or maybe [transiently] for
> some subset of white people).
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
> --
>
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>


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All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
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                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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