ciggieboo (unverified 1957) was Re: abreevs

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Dec 12 17:07:17 UTC 2010


HDAS has plain old "ciggie" from 1915.

"Arkus-malarkus" must be based on Damon Runyon's "phonus-balonus."  I've
never seen it before, but Carl Sandburg used "arkymalarky" in 1936.

"Ackamarackus" has had a very minor currency since being popularized or
invented by Runyon about 1933-34.  I find "ackamaracka" in lists of slang
only, where it has been rather popular among editors.

JL

On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      ciggieboo (unverified 1957) was Re: abreevs
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > Nobody here checks HDAS. I can dig it. I'll figure out a way to get those
> > decades back. (Barry, I feel your pain.)
> >
> > The form "ciggie-boo" [sic] has four exx. from 1958 to 1988. The earliest
> is
> > from Britain, home of the WASP.
> >
> > Updates,  anyone? ...
>
> 1957 [unverified], The Southerner by Douglas Kiker, GB Page 137,
> Rinehart, New York. (Google Books snippet; WorldCat agrees with date;
> Not verified on paper)
>
> He left them and sauntered back to me.
> "Have you got a ciggieboo, old trooper?" he asked lightly.
>
>
> 1958 [unverified], After long silence by Robert Gutwillig, GB Page
> 201, Little, Brown, Boston. (Google Books snippet; WorldCat agrees
> with date; Not verified on paper)
>
> "A ciggy-boo, darlin'."
>
>
> Here is an instance of rhyming slang for ciggie in 1946:
>
> Cite: 1946, September 7, The New Yorker, page 25. (New Yorker online
> archive)
>
> I keep myself down to words like 'arkus-malarkus' and 'ciggie-biggies.'
>
> Garson
>
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>



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