antedating (?) of "a square" (bore, pest) March 15, 1939

[Wilson Gray]

I'm not hip to "jeff" or "icky." "Ig(g)" for "ignore" is used by my
95-year-old-mother, but is otherwise dead. I've never heard it used
except by her and other members of her age cohort. (Till now, I
thought that it was something used only by older ladies from Marshall,
Texas. Who knew that it was once hip in The Big Apple?) I'm not
familiar with "jeff" at all' but, off course, "icky," like "chick,"
"kill," and "square," is alive and kicking to this very day, though I
had no idea that "icky" was ever hip. I find that absolutely amazing!
"Gate," supposedly because it swung, was still alive in my childhood
and early youth.

-Wilson

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 7:53 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Subject:      antedating (?) of "a square" (bore, pest) March 15, 1939
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _Square_. A bore, a pest (_syn_.: jeff, icky). After all, a square often
> deserves to be
>
> _Igged_. Ignored. To be sure, you can't always igg a square, but you can try.
> For one thing, a jeff is not the type of gate who takes a chick out and
>
> _Kills her_. Shows her a good time. ...
>
> American Slang: A Glossary for Elder Readers ["in Harlem...Darkest New York"],
> in Punch March 15, 1939, 282-3, here 283 col. 1.
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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