Off the ol' hookeroo

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:41 PM -0400 4/28/10, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>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

But if "buckaroo", as is often claimed, is simply a domesticated
version of "vaquero" ('cowboy'), the birth of the -eroo/-aroo suffix
would have been midwifed by a mid-20th century (pseudo-)reanalysis
along the lines that gave rise to -oholic and more recently -gate.

LH

>
>On 4/28/2010 1:09 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>
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