square from Delaware (1939)

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Sep 4 14:11:30 UTC 2008


Okay. I can get behind that. I regret the misunderstanding.

-Wilson

On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 10:26 PM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: square from Delaware (1939)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 9:59 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> But in what sense does any of these cites constitute the "origin" of
>> the term? Doesn't "origin' include such information as semantics and
>> etymology? Why "square" and not "circle," for example?
>
> Oh, I was just floating the idea that "square" in the relevant sense
> could have originated as a shortened form of "square from Delaware",
> which in turn might have started out as not much more than a funny
> rhyme along the lines of the others in the 1939 Dan Burley cite (Lane
> from Spokane, killer from Manila, Home from Rome). Then when it was
> established as a pejorative term for an unhip outgrouper, the "from
> Delaware" part could be dropped. Just a theory...
>
> --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.
-----
-Mark Twain

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list