boo (interj. 1800, v. 1833)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 11:32 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 1:01 AM, Benjamin Zimmer <
>> bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> My latest Word Routes column is on the origins of booing:
>>>
>>> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/1811/
[...]
>
> What about the "boo" used to startle someone or as the sound made by ghostissiz?

Also discussed in the column as a predecessor. For startling
interjections, "bo(h)" came first, and then "boo" by the early 18th
century -- about a century before the drawn-out "boo" of derision.


--Ben Zimmer

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