antedating (?) noogie and tough noogies

[Wilson Gray]

Probably not relevant, IMO. Nicknames don't necessarily relate to
anything real at all, among black people. I know the word "noogie"
only from all-white sitcoms. But, in those sitcoms, giving someone a
noogie had nothing to do with rapping him anywhere, though the
expression, "tough noogies," was used on these shows.

OTOH, I went to grade school with Bo-Jigger, Luke the Spook, Sneed,
We-Boy, Bubble-Eye, Ju-Baby, Reco, Linky, Head, Foots, Jap, Peter,
Boo-Boo, Hambone, Chop-Chop, etc., etc,. and, in no case, did the
nicknames relate to anything at all in the real world, as far as I
knew. I sometimes heard stories - Wendell supposedly was called
"Peter" because, as a baby, he peed in his diapers a lot - but who
knows anything at all about how Marion came to get his nickname of
"Jap"? Well, from time to time, I was present at the creation, as when
Barbara said, "Janice is so cute! Just like a little _butterball_!"
(This was way back in the day, before "Butterball" had become better
known as a trademark than as a kind of candy.)

My "baby" brothers, ca. seventeen years younger than I am, placing
them now in their fifties, had never heard of "noogie' before I asked
them whether they were familiar with the word. But I've also known
white people who knew nothing about what it means to thump a
watermelon to see whether it's ripe or what it means to thump a person
in his head.

-Wilson



On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:53 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 (?) noogie and tough noogies
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> HDAS has 1972 for both.
>
> According to Google Books snippet view:
> The Tsaddik of the seven wonders - Page 119
> by Isidore Haiblum - Fiction - 1971 - 185 pages [NY: Ballentine]
> Naturally, you should expect we'd branch out a bit." "But the whole world?"
> Greenberg's great grandson shrugged. "Tough noogies," he said. ...
>
> GB limited view:
> The Indian wants the Bronx: a play. By Israel Horovitz 1968 [New York:
> Dramatists Play Service]
>
> page 11
> JOEY....That's unethical, Pussyface. He owes me noogies, too!
> MURPH....Now, I'll give you twenty noogies, so we'll be even. (He raps Joey on
> the R. arm. The Indian looks up as Joey squeals.)
>
> page 15
> MURPH. You want another noogie?
> JOEY. Maybe Turkie wants a noogie or six?
> MURPH. ...
> Give him his noogie.
> JOEY. Naw. He's your friend. You give it to him. ...
>
> ( ? not relevant: according to Watkins Gets Foreman Post, Chicago Daily
> Defender (Daily Edition) (1960-1973). Chicago, Ill.: Sep 24, 1968. p. 26 James
> "Noogie" Watkins was a versatile athlete, finally with the Harlem
> Globetrotters.)
>
> 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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