bellybutton

[Garson O'Toole]

Charlie Doyle asked:
> A character named "Mrs. Bellybutton" appeared in 1847 in H. N.
> Moore's _Fitzgerald and Hopkins; or, Scenes and Adventures in
> Theatrical Life_ (Philadelphia:  G. Sherman).  Could there be
> some other (non-anatomical) allusion in her name?

In addition to the character Mrs. Bellybutton, there are John
Bellybutton and Robert Bellybutton.

Do you think it is possible that "belly" is being used as a
nonsensical combining term to generate other words within the work
cited? Here are two other instances of "belly" in "Fitzgerald and
Hopkins: or, Scenes and adventures in theatrical life":

Page 59

"While at Eton," replied the schoolmaster, he was the Hon-
orable Snubnose Cocklecroft, he afterwards inherited the title of
Lord Sugarlips, and has since, in consideration of the many ser-
vices he has rendered the crown, been created Duke of Dolly-
belly."


Page 88

A spoonful or so of chicken-
broth, once or twice a day, to keep life in him, but nothing more.
What! did he talk of an apple-dumpling, do you say?"
  "He did."
  "Monstrous! Aldo-belly-polly-nephus!"
  "I told him 'twould choke him."
  "That was right. You have an eye to business, I perceive."

http://books.google.com/books?id=VIgUAAAAYAAJ&q=belly#v=snippet&

Garson

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 2:26 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      bellybutton
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Somehow, Larry's comment on the possible gender specificity of the noun "blond(e)" reminded me of an old joke about Ken, the boyfriend of Barbee; it culminates in the punchline "Because he was a blond too."
>
> Then, in reference to a detail featured in the joke, I contemplated the fact that students in recent years (ones in my folkore classes commonly report the joke) seem not ever to use the anatomical term "navel" (much less "umbilicus"); their only term for that feature is "bellybutton"--which I had always taken to be a jocular nursery term, not altogether seemly in adult discourse.
>
> HDAS cites the term in the "fourth" edition of Bartlett's _Dictionary of Americanisms_, 1877.  OED, in turn, cites HDAS and the date 1877, adding two British examples, 1934 and 1946.
>
> A character named "Mrs. Bellybutton" appeared in 1847 in H. N. Moore's _Fitzgerald and Hopkins; or, Scenes and Adventures in Theatrical Life_ (Philadelphia:  G. Sherman).  Could there be some other (non-anatomical) allusion in her name?
>
> For what it's pedantically worth:  I believe the so-called fourth edition of Bartlett's _Dictionary of Americanisms_ (1877) is, technically speaking, the third edition.  The 1860 edition, designated on the title page as the third, is actually just a reprint of the 1859 (second) edition (another reprint appeared in 1869).
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Laurence Horn [laurence.horn at YALE.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:20 PM
>
> While that "coed" *as a noun* has this restricted meaning, "coed" as
> an adjective ("coed dorms", "coed college", "coed toilet", "coed
> showers", "coed (naked) volleyball", etc., just designates
> mixed-sex/unisex.  This is part of the general conspiracy involving
> nouns vs. non-nouns as described by Bolinger, Wierzbicka and others
> and discussed on the list in earlier threads.  A parallel, although
> less dramatic, contrast is "blond(e)" as a unisex adjective vs.
> "blonde" as a <+fem> noun (a man is less likely to be described as "a
> blond").
>
> LH
>
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