dudads, doodads

[Wilson Gray]

1888 GB: I'd bet money that that is a typo for Spanish _sin duda_
"without doubt, doubtless, no doubt," etc., given the context.

1877 HDAS: I like that "I spec'late." I been spec'latin' fo' years as
to whether the well-known "I 'spec'" is "I SUSpect" or "I EXpect."
I've seen it spelled out only as "I EXpect." However, for whatever
little it may be worth, I've *always* intuited the form as "I
SUSpect," for as long as I've been able to understand the local BE of
East Texas, ca. seventy years. I've never felt comfortable with "I
EXpect," on semantic grounds. I've always heard "I 'spec' " and used
it with the understanding that it means that I think that something
MAY happen, not that I think that something WILL happen, as it were.

Needless to say, I'm fully aware that this is merely my own
totally-unsupported-by-any-fact-that-I-know-of personal intuition.
Hence, there's no need for anyone to waste his time pointing this out
to me.

Now, this is also not likely the case, but I, at least, could feature
"I 'spec' " as a possible clip of "I spec'late," even though I'm
forced to admit that I can do so primarily because I see this as
(remotely) possible support for my intuition as to what the basis of
"I spec' " is.

As for "doodad," it's been one of my favorite WTF - gnome sane? -
words for dekkids.

-Wilson



On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 11:42 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:      dudads, doodads
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 1877 HDAS (its only pre-1905 cite) & internet archive.
> Deadwood Dick, the prince of the road:
> or, The black rider of the Black Hills, Edward Lytton Wheeler, 1877. 82.
> "Gentlemen!" he plead, "there is need o' yer dutchin' out yer dudads right
> liberal ef ye've enny purtic'lar anticypation an' desire ter git ter Deadwood
> ter-night. Dick, the Road-Agent, are law an' gospel heerabouts, I spec'late!"
> "Durned a cent'll I fork!" growled one old fellow, loud enough to be heard. "I
> ain't afeerd o' all the robber Dicks from here ter Jerusalum."
>
> 1888 GB
> The Overland monthly - Page 469
> _Sin dudad_, [error?] all Americans are rich; but they have also plenty to do
> with their money. They will not send it here for him to marry Lolita. ...
>
> 1890 GB
> A history: Greeley and the Union Colony of Colorado - Page 53
> David Boyd - (Greeley, Colorado, 1890)
> Two or three hundred (floating population) that have not "dudads" enough to get
> down to Evans, four miles below; a board of trustees consisting of honest
> Meeker, General Cameron, ...
>
> 1891 AHN
> Omaha World Herald, page 20, [col. 5] vol. XXVI
> Publication Date:
> December 20, 1891
> Published as:
> Sunday World-Herald
> Location:
> Omaha, Nebraska
> Headline:
> Three-Year-Old's Santa. A Tale of Penury Which Has a Happy Ending
> ...Christmas eve....the churches are having trees and giving doodads to urchins.
>
> 1896 AHN
> Emporia Gazette, page [4], vol. 6, iss. 2276
> Publication Date:
> May 8, 1896
> Published as:
> Emporia Daily Gazette
> Location:
> Emporia, Kansas
> Headline:
> [No Headline] col. 4
> The new fire wagon has been received all the paint--fifteen coats--and the first
> coat of varnish will be put on today. Monday the letters and "doodads" will be
> added.
>
> 1897 GB
> Good roads: devoted to the construction and maintenance of roads and streets?
> - Page 235 col. 2
> League of American Wheelmen -  Aug. 13, 1897
> The subjoined letter is said to be an order sent by a Kansas man to a bicycle
> ... A repairer, no matter how uneducated he may be, is always a man of
> parts....I can get all the wind I want out here in Kansas free...
> P.S. How much do you charge for the doodad you stuff the wind into the robber
> with where do you start?
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
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

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