HDAS and -boo

Paul Johnston paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU
Mon Dec 13 00:07:00 UTC 2010


Itchycoo Park, by London East Enders the Small Faces (1966).

Paul Johnston
On Dec 12, 2010, at 7:01 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: HDAS and -boo
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Ronald Butters <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
>>>> Isn't -boo/poo a diminutive suffix that can be applied to any noun?
>
> I have _ticky-boo_ and _icky-poo_ lurking in the back of my
> thinking-cap. Google prefers _tickety-boo_ and finds both forms of
> what I seem to recall too recent to be as ancient as I think they are.
> I didn't bother to check GB.
>
> Wasn't there  once a song about a park named "itchy-" or some such
> "-Koo, -Coo, -Poo" or some such? "Chicka-Boo" - clearly meant to be
> onomatopoetic in this case, if you've ever heard it - is the name of
> an old instrumental by the late, Texas jazz pianist, Lloyd Glenn,
> beet-known for that Christmas-tide perennial favorite - amongst the
> bruz & cuz, IAC - "Sleigh-Ride."
>
> --
> -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
>
> Once that we recognize that we do not err out of laziness, stupidity,
> or evil intent, we can uncumber ourselves of the impossible burden of
> trying to be permanently right. We can take seriously the proposition
> that we could be in error, without necessarily deeming ourselves
> idiotic or unworthy.
> –Kathryn Schulz
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list