"blergh" (and "argh")

[Wilson Gray]

It's too bad that drink and the devil had done for the rest.

_Wilson

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:30 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "blergh" (and "argh")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dan Goncharoff wrote
>> I want to say Treasure Island, because it is the source of almost
>> everything Pirate, but there is no "argh" in Stevenson's immortal work,
>> just a lot of indeterminate oaths.
>
> I think that is a natural place to look because of the depiction of
> pirates in latter–day adaptions of the work. This 1990 cite is late,
> but it does provide an example of the speech expected from movie
> pirates in Treasure Island, including "argh":
>
> Cite: 1990 January 22, Chicago Tribune, Heston's 'Treasure Island' is
> a Wild  Adventure by Rick Kogan, TV/radio critic, Page 3, Chicago,
> Illinois.
>
> Virtually every man in "Treasure Island" speaks as if he were
> attempting to dislodge a shovelful of gravel from his throat, which is
> just the way we want our pirates, when we can get them, to talk.
> ...
> It's no wonder that shortly before making his escape with a sack of
> dubloons, and a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, Silver says to young
> Jim, "Argh, what a team we might have made."
>
> The term "argh" does not appear in the book Treasure Island as Dan
> Goncharoff notes. Long John Silver does say "Ah" many times. He also
> uses other characteristic terms: "matey" and "swabs":
>
> "Ah! Black Dog," says he. "HE'S a bad un; but there's worse that put him on."
> "Ah, he looked a shark, he did!"
> "Ah, she's a handsome craft, she is"
> "Ah, they was a sweet crew, they was!"
> "And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low, and deserted by all; and Jim,
> you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey?"
> "Doctors is all swabs"
>
> Maybe some pirate speech is rooted in early movies or plays. How much
> of the evolution of pirate diction and manner is based on actors
> observing previous performances?
>
> Garson
>
> Charles Doyle wrote:
>>> I just read an e-mail from a former student (mid-twentyish) in which she used the interjection "blergh!"--which was new to me.
>>>
>>> _Urban Dictionary_ registers the word, one of the (three) contributors offering an etymology: "a combination of the words: blah, argh, and ugh."  (How would "ugh" figure in the blend? Perhaps explaining the vowel?)
>>>
>>> When, I wonder, (and how) did "argh" become the ubiquitously-recognized staple of Pirate-speak?  The OED records the interjection "argh" (the "-r-" is optional, depending on the rhoticism of the dialect, I suppose), but the entry says nothing about pirates. Have we discussed maricanine "argh"?
>>>
>>> Charlie
>
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--
-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

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