some Ballyhoo (UNCLASSIFIED)

Fri Sep 7 17:41:26 UTC 2007

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

some more ballyhoo

[display ad] _New-York Gazette_; Date: 09-24-1795; Issue: 2107; Page:
[3]; col 3.
"For sale, if applied within three days, the beautiful new schooner
BALLYHOO, now lying in the stream, just off the stocks, well found,
burthen 59 tons." [antedates OED's ballahou 1867 cite]

"Catching Fish at Sea," _Connecticut Courant_, published as _Supplement
To The Courant_; Date: 01-11-1845; Volume: X; Issue: 1; Page: 4 [cite
from p. 5 col 1] [reprinted from the _Boston Mercantile Journal_]
[This is a slightly earlier printing of Goranson's 2/21/1845 cite below]

An example of Shapiro's Law????:
"Proctor Knott Pulled," _The [Chicago] Daily Inter Ocean_; Date:
05-03-1889; Volume: XVIII; Issue: 40; Page: 2; col 5
"This was a very heavy betting race, Estelle opening a favorite at 2 to
1, Gracie M. 5 to 1, Daisy F. 4 to 1, Dilemma 6 to 1, Ballyhoo 8 to 1,
and 15 to 20 to 1 the others." [alluded to below]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2007 10:34 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: some Ballyhoo
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: some Ballyhoo
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> HDAS does recognize the _ballyhoo_ sense "barker," but only
> from 1915.  Stephen's 1898 ex. is a clear and valuable
> antedating. "Barker" has been in use for centuries and why
> "ballyhoo" would butt in the late 19th is a bit mysterious.
>
>   My linguistic sense tells me that the 1914 ex. of
> ballyhoos"going at full blast" refers to the free shows.
> IMOO, barkers without electric amplification would be poorly
> described as going "at full blast."
>
>   JL
>
> Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Stephen Goranson
> Subject: some Ballyhoo
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> OED has:
> ballyhoo n. "orig. U.S. [Etym. unknown.]" "A barker's touting
> speech; hence, blarney, bombastic nonsense; extravagant
> advertisement of any kind." 1901....
>
> HDAS has:
> ballyhoo 2 n. {orig. unkn. see note] Circus & Carnival 1. a
> flamboyant free performance given outside a circus or
> carnival attraction, in an attempt to lure customers to buy a
> ticket for the show inside....{1990} and 1901....
> 2. a barker's noisy advertising pitch....
>
> {Literature includes American Speech 1935 289-91; 1936 101-2;
> 1945 184-6; 1965 32-9; Int. J. Am. Ling. 1957 302-3; Mencken;
> Partridge; etc.]
>
> Here I merely raise the possiblity that Ballyhoo may have
> referred to the speaker of such before the speech, the barker
> rather than the bark.
>
> 1898 The Milwaukee Sentinel, (Milwaukee, WI) [Gale 19th C
> newspapers] Wednesday, December 21, 1898; pg. 8; col D
> Woman's Talk about Snakes: A Cuban Expert Tells How to Buy
> Them She [the snake handler] is called Inez Possetti and the
> accurate and conscientious "Ballyhoo" who extols the merits
> of the show describes her as a "dark-eyed senorita from the
> Pearl of the Antilles."
>
> An OED 1914 cite can be read as referring to a ballyhoo as a person:
> 1914 Philad. Even. Post 9 May, A live, little park full of
> side show tents..with..barkers spieling before the entrances
> and all the ballyhoos going at full blast.
>
> Misc.:
>
> The Congregationalist, (Boston, MA) Wednesday, June 23, 1880;
> pg. 5; Issue 25; col D Multiple Classified Advertisements An
> ad mentions Harpers July issue Ballyhoo bird sham story,
> cited in HDAS.
>
> The Daily Inter Ocean, (Chicago, IL) Sunday, May 20, 1888;
> Issue 57; p. 21 col B The Doctor at Maud's: A Story of the
> Kentucky Mountains, Eva Wilder Mcglasson.
> 'Twuz a store whar they kep' bams n' balsams n' setttlers
> powders n' linymen's n' all the list o' them paton' medicines
> ye hev heerd me cuss tell the air wor blue ez Ballyhos [sic]."
>
> New-Hampshire Statesman and State Journal, (Concord, NH)
> Friday, February 21, 1845; Issue 1239; p.1 col A Miscellany.
> From the Boston Mercantile Journal. Catching Fish at Sea. The Dolphin.
> In less than two minutes I was ready for action, and I saw
> the noble fish only a few fathoms distant, shooting ahead, as
> if he beheld a dainty morsel, in the shaps of a flying fish
> or a ballyhoo, and was eager to transfer it from the chill
> and bitter waters of the sea, to his snug office of discount
> and deposit.....My mate, Mr. Starbuck, a worthy and efficient
> seaman, from Nantucket....
> [This 1845 mention predates Moby Dick; Melville of course
> used the phrase "ballyhoo of blazes."
> OED gives:
> Sailors' term of contempt for a vessel which they dislike for
> any reason.
> 1836 Knickerbocker Aug. 203 Jack Marlinspike..couldn't get a
> situation afore the mast of a Ballyhoo coasting-brig. 1847 H.
> MELVILLE Omoo lxxvi. 295 Steer clear of the likes of this
> ballyhoo of blazes as long as ye live. 1929 F. C. BOWEN Sea
> Slang 6 Ballyhoo of blazes..the last word of contempt for a
> slovenly ship.]
>
> In 1889ff Ballyhoo was a racehorse name, reported in many papers.
>
> The Daily Picayune, (New Orleans, LA) Saturday, August 10,
> 1895; pg. 6; Issue 198; col D Vox Populi The Smoke Ordinance
> Suburban Resident.
> knocked thim citizens into Ballyhoo
>
> The Milwaukee Journal, (Milwaukee, WI) Wednesday, January 27,
> 1897; pg. 7; col B Cronyn Replies to Burgess Another Chapter
> in the Dispute over the Johnston Emergency Hospital Wm. J.
> Cronyn, M. D., President City Hospital Association.
> [He asks sarcastically is a certain hospital should be]
> "dubbed the Ballyhoo?"
>
> Hench in Am. Speech 1945 185 asked if there were expressions
> such as "a ballyhoo of a galley" or a ballyhoo of a
> man/yarn/words. A brief look didn't turn up examples before 1920.
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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