Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties

[Paul Johnston]

Going back a bit to the 16th c.--but aren't "weird" and "doom" both
words of this kind?  And, with "weird", with a complete meaning
shift, thanks to a total misunderstanding of what Shakespeare meant
by the Weird Sisters, most English people at the time not being
fluent in Scots..

A more modern one--gat for a gun.  My father, born in 1906, knew the
term (which comes from Gatling, after all) as a sort of gangster
slang from the '20s.  I didn't hear it again until the '90s, via hiphop.

Neat, and its derivative "neat-o!" were common everyday words among
kids in the Chicago area in the late 50s-early 60s, and we also had a
form "neatguy", pronounced like a compound.  if the term were
pronounced like a phrase, the term meant "a cool guy", but if it were
pronounced like a compound, it meant a dork, usually someone who
THOUGHT they were cool.  Does anybody else know that one?  I never
heard it outside of DuPage County, IL.



Paul Johnston
On Feb 12, 2010, at 4:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties
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>
> Alison, I didn't even learn it till the mid to late '50s, and I
> still use
> it, though not so often as I might.
>
> Of course, nothing really is as "neat" now as it was then.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 4:26 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net>
> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties
>>
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>>  On Feb 12, 2010, at 3:27 PM, Eric Nielsen wrote:
>>
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties
>>>
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>> ----------
>>>
>>> How about Lazarus words. "Sleeping Beauty" and "Rip Van Winkle"
>>> could refer
>>> to words that still have a life, i.e. some limited current usage.
>>>
>>> Eric
>>>
>>> On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
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>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties
>>>>
>>>>
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>>>
>>>>       Perhaps "jape," thought to have become archaic in the 16th
>>>> century but revived in the 19th, would be another example, although
>>>> it
>>>> is different from these in that its 19th century revival was fairly
>>>> limited, while Mark's examples are of words that achieved a
>>>> prominence
>>>> they never previously held.  I prefer "late bloomer" as the name
>>>> for
>>>> such words, but I suppose "Sleeping Beauty" is more colorful.  "Rip
>>>> Van
>>>> Winkle" seems an unsuitable term, since that implies an extended
>>>> quiescence followed by a return to a prior state.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> John Baker
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
>>>> Behalf
>>>> Of Mark Peters
>>>> Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 11:45 AM
>>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>> Subject: Rip Van Winkles/Sleeping Beauties
>>>>
>>>> Hey all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm doing a column on terms like unfriend--which, as Ben discussed
>>>> here
>>>> (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2145/)--took a long
>>>> linguistic nap before emerging as a common word the last couple of
>>>> years.
>>>>
>>>> I'm collecting examples of other sleeping beauties: words recorded
>>>> long
>>>> ago that suddenly jump into prominence, becoming prime examples of
>>>> the
>>>> recency illusion. Besides unfriend, I have not, truthiness, and
>>>> doh. Any
>>>> other examples would be hugely appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Also, if anyone has an opinion on whether Rip Van Winkles or
>>>> Sleeping
>>>> Beautiesis a better term for this kind of word, I'd love to hear
>>>> the
>>>> reasons.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks, word-herders!
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>> http://wordlust.blogspot.com/
>> ~~~~~~~~~~
>> I'm not sure what its status is now, but "neat"  was an expression
>> from my childhood, meaning what would now be called "cool," roughly.
>> I thought it had completely died out in the '50s, but heard it
>> frequently again from the ''70s to '90s.  It may be that its use has
>> been mainly among people of an age to have known it back in the '30s
>> &'40s.
>> AM
>>
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> --
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> truth."
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