lookit

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Apr 11, 2009, at 6:28 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote about:

> ... "look at t" as an
> interjective substitute for faux imperative exclamation "look"
> (="consider this"). E.g., "Lookit, here's what we decided--take it or
> leave it." At some point in the past, I noticed that this expression
> is
> commonly used by Rush Limbaugh, although I know a number of other
> people who also use "look at t" exclusively where I would use "look". A
> small number of people sometimes (non-exclusively) use "look here".
>
> I don't know if it's a deform of "look at" or its own malapropism, but
> it always creeps me out when people use it.

not in AHD4, but the Oxford folks are on to it.  NOAD2 has an entry
labeled "informal" for it, with subentries for a verb ('phonetic
spelling of "look at"') and an exclamation ('used to draw attention to
what one is about to say').  OED2 has an entry with the gloss
'Listen!' and (surprisingly) no style or region label.  its etymology
derives it from "look" with an arbitrary final element.  there are
cites from 1917 (Dialect Notes) through 1972.

i suspect that people with "lookit" also have plain "look" for this
purpose.

arnold

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