square from Delaware (1939)

[Wilson Gray]

So, the "lame" of my youth - and of today, for that matter - may be a
hypercorrection of "lane," once clipping severed it from Spokane, its
partner in rhyme.

As for Spokane, it may very well have purposely been made to rhyme
with cane instead of with can, so that it would also rhyme with lane.
You'd probably have had to be there, to know for sure.

-Wilson

On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 11:05 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 4:53 PM, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Sep 03, 2008 at 03:57:30PM -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>>>> ---
>>>> 1939 _New York Amsterdam News_ [Dan Burley's "Backdoor Stuff"] 27 May
>>>> 20/1 "Lawd! I'm a square from Delaware, a Lane from Spokane, a killer
>>>> from Manila and a Home from Rome," Allen Drew beats out.
>>>> ---
>>>> 1940 _New York Amsterdam News_ 2 Mar. 21/2 So don't be the "square
>>>> from Delaware," just lace up your boots and "dig this jive."
>>>> ---
> [...]
>>
>> So do we have anything earlier for "square" = 'unhip person (from
>> Delaware or elsewhere)'? The 1939 Amst News cite doesn't imply
>> unhipness, but the 1940 one certainly does.
>
> Unhip (non-Delawarean) squares from 1939:
>
> 1939 _Atlanta Daily World_ 22 June 5/5 Most of the crowd, it is
> anticipated, will be "the country squares who will come from here 'n'
> there to 'dig' the N.Y. World's Fair."
>
> ["Galento No Bet in Harlem" by Eddie West, on opinions from Harlem
> about the coming title fight between Joe Louis and "Two Ton" Tony
> Galento.]
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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>



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