Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"

[Scot LaFaive]

>My goodness, Amy! How old are you? I first heard "okey-doke(y)" used by my
mother, now 96, >and her friends in the late 'Thirties!

Which "okey-dokey" sense do you mean here? Like Amy, I've never heard of the
sense used by Obama. But then again, I'm just a Yankee boy and it might not
have made it up here except to mean "OK."

Scot

On Jan 24, 2008 11:34 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My goodness, Amy! How old are you? I first heard "okey-doke(y)" used
> by my mother, now 96, and her friends in the late 'Thirties!
>
> The expression was so popular that, in the "Forties, there was even an
> in-the-days-of-knights comic-book character named "Sir Oakey Doakes."
> Before that, Edgar Bergen's hick dummy, Mortimer Snerd, used
> "Okey-dokey!" as a catch-phrase.
>
> Mortimer:
> "How can you tell the difference between a Cadillac and a Cadiddlac?"
>
> Edgar:
> "How?"
>
> Mortimer:
> "By the "diddle" in the middle!
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 1/24/08, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > That sense is new to me, but that ain't saying much. I use
> > "okey-dokey" for "OK", and get some giggles when I do. I always learn
> > stuff here.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> > And any work by Arnold that is dismissed by others as "merely
> > descriptive" is still tons more illuminating to me than analytical
> > works by others.
> >
> > >Date:    Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:20:55 -0500
> > >From:    Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> > >Subject: Obama warns of the "old okey-doke"
> > >
> > >From Sumter, SC...
> > >
> > >---
> > >
> http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/when_obama_call.html
> > >  Obama used the friendly setting to urge voters not to be fooled by
> > >what he said were untruths coming from Hillary Clinton's campaign.
> > >"They're trying to bamboozle you. It's the same old okey-doke," he
> > >said, using a slang phrase for a con. "Y'all know about okey-doke,
> > >right? It's the same old stuff."
> > >---
> > >
> > >--Ben Zimmer
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
>                                              -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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