Off the ol' hookeroo

[Dan Goncharoff]

Buckaroo might be the oldest word of that form, going back to the 19th
century, but isn't such word play more a 20th century practice?

This would seem to agree:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/486851

DanG

On 4/28/2010 1:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"<Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Off the ol' hookeroo
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I suppose the meaning is clear:  Out of a difficult situation; off the spot.
>
> Presumably from "off the hook" -- OED hook n., sense 15.f. "off the
> hook: out of a difficult situation."  The opposite of "on the hook"
> --  sense 2.b. "on the hook: in various fig. uses, e.g. ensnared, in
> the power (of someone); in one's grasp."
>
> If the question is "where does *hookeroo* come from?", perhaps "hook"
> plus the "factitious slang suffix" (OED) -eroo.
>
> Joel
>
> At 4/28/2010 12:29 PM, Lisa Galvin wrote:
>
>> A friend of mine is a translator, and now and then she asks me
>> questions about particularly troublesome (meaning difficult to look
>> up, find online, etc.) English expressions she is faced with
>> translating into Japanese. Usually I can come up with answers for
>> her, along with some history and other examples, using my own
>> knowledge and a little research, but trying to nail this one down
>> got me stuck.
>>
>> This is a Peanuts comic where Lucy and Linus are having the
>> following exchange:
>>
>> ==================================================
>>
>> LUCY: How sould you like to see a list of things I want for Christmas?
>>
>> LINUS: Absolutely not!! I want my gift to you this year to be a complete and
>> delightful surprise.
>>
>> LUCY: What a lovely generous thought...
>>
>> (and off she goes...)
>>
>> LINUS: Off the Ol' Hookeroo!!
>>
>> ===================================================
>>
>>
>> Of course the<ol'>  +<*eroo>  construction is a way of
>> colloqializing the expression "off the hook", but does anyone know
>> when that started or how to better define the construction and its
>> nuance of meaning?
>>
>>
>>
>> It's a tough one to Google (this one kept getting me "did you mean,
>> 'old hooker'?" Uh, no, no I did not).
>>
>>
>>
>> I know we have "The ol' switcheroo", any other examples you can think of?
>>
>>
>>
>> Oh, and just for the record, she ended up translating this line as
>> something like "Good, I'm safe for now".
>>
>>
>>
>> Lisa Galvin
>>
>> Seattle WA
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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