Elvises -> Elvi(i) PLUS -oon (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Fri Sep 14 16:42:36 UTC 2007


Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE



> Here's an early and odd parallel:
>
>   1920 Ardern Beaman _The Squadroon_ (London: John Lane) 210:
> "No," said the Skipper, not a hope - if they really mean
> business. All my Hotchki [_sc_. "Hotchkiss guns"] are knocked out.
>
>   The  British cavalry officers of 1918 who feature in
> Chaplain Beaman's nonfiction account evidently had a thing
> for this sort of thing.  Regarding the title of his book,
> Beaman writes (p. 5): "This was my introduction to the
> Squadron, or I should say 'Squadroon,' as at this time, for
> some reason of unknown origin, we pronounced all words ending
> in 'on' as 'oon.'"
>
>   The only other ex. I note given in the book is this (p.
> 60): "What a delicious smell of barkoon [_sc_. "bacon"],"
> said the Skipper, sniffing appreciatively.
>
>   One thinks of the app. later American slang term "maroon,"
> for "moron."
>
>   J


 Other denigrating "-oon" words:  buffoon, octoroon/octoon, quadroon,
poltroon, picaroon, quintroon
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list