creeper

[Jonathan Lighter]

I don't *think* anyone has checked out HDAS on "creep."

The evidence shows that the usu. slang sense of "creep," formerly applied
by felons to contemptible sneak thieves, did not become common until perhaps
1940, and not wildly so till the '50s.

Etymologically it probably has nothing to do with giving the "creeps,"
though that is certainly how many people think of it.

HDAS's "1926" ex. may be shaky. It came from the 1999 reprint, and I have a
creepy feeling - based on essentially nothing - that the line may have been
silently modernized. (The rest of the poem/story seems to be unproblematic.)
Either that or Joseph Mancuso March picked it the word up from a bootlegger,
evidently equally possible.

JL

On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 10:05 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: creeper
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mar 13, 2010, at 6:24 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:
>
> > A_creeper_ seems to creep you out more than a creep...
>
> i don't *think* anyone has checked out the OED on "creep".  here's
> what OED2 says:
>
> the noun "creep" is listed as slang (orig. U.S.) for 'a despicable,
> worthless, stupid, or tiresome person', with cites from 1886 on in
> this sense (which it relates to an earlier sense, described as now
> obsolete, 'creeping fellow', with a link to "creeper").
>
> another possible contribution to this use of the noun "creep" (and the
> verb "creep out") is the  verb "creep" of "creeping of the flesh", as
> in the adjective "creepy".  OED2 on "creepy": 'having a creeping of
> the flesh, or chill shuddering feeling, caused by horror or
> repugnance' (cites from 1831 on), with the transferred sense 'tending
> to produce such sensations' (cites from 1883 on). it seems to me that
> the meaning has been extended further, without necessarily involving
> creeping of the flesh.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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