"Ofay" etc. from the Freeman

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 From "The Freeman" ("A National Illustrated Colored Newspaper")
(Indianapolis IN):

Via GenealogyBank: just a few selections:

----------

22 April 1899: p. 5:

<<The "Ofays" are continually complimenting Mr. Harry Prampin on his band.>>

----------

2 September 1899: p. 5:

[from England]

<<The American Troubadours four in number, have just returned to London
from the continent. All the boys seem to like this side of th[e] water
and not many speaks of returning. 'Jig-wauks' are scarce, but 'O-fays'
are plentiful.>>

----------

8 November 1902: p. 5:

<<Sam Johnson says: 'R. O. Henderson, how can I sleep where all these
o'fays, ge gauks and creoles are? [sic]>>

----------

7 February 1903: p. 5:

<<Williams and Stevens made such a big hit at the Metropolitan theatre
that the management wants them to return again as they give give better
satisfaction as Gewauks than all the Ofays they had.>>

----------

22 August 1903: p. 5:

<<We are now in Texas, and business is exceptionally good. The Ofays are
very quiet; not a shot has been fired, and it seems they have entirely
forgotten their favorite word 'nigger.'>>

----------

17 September 1904: p. 5:

<<Mr. and Mrs. Kersands were the recipients of a large cake at Little
Rock, Ark. after the show by an esteemed friend and performer of long
acquaintance, (ofay). Daily the Kersands are meeting nearly as many
friends among the ofays as colored, and they real[l]y appreciate the
courtesies extended to them at the hands of both races.>>

----------

1 September 1906: p. 5:

<<All is well and we are still doing the business: played Bellview,
Iowa, last week. "Not [sic] a "Gigwark" in town[.] Until we got there
many of the "Ofays" had never seen one.>>

----------

26 January 1907: p. 6:

[from Europe]

<<I like it over here fine because a "spade" can go any place he likes
in Germany more than in England, for there are so many American "fofays"
in England now that they make it hard for "spades." .... We have
eighteen people -- eight ladies and ten men -- all colors of the "spade"
race, from the blackest to the whitest[.]>>

----------

12 April 1913: p. 5:

<<These two girls go from burnt cork up to O'Fay Geworks, [illegible
word] from low comedy to high-class opera, from ridiculous to sublime.>>

----------

24 January 1914: p. 5:

<<We have an Ofay porter on the car who can talk the jig language
fluently. Now he is gradually turning huckish from reading "Leopard
Spots.">>

----------

19 September 1914: p. 4:

<<This is a 25c and 35c show, and the old Fays eat it up.>>

----------

26 September 1914: p. 6:

<<Fred Finly is the house officer. It seems as if everyone likes him,
even though he is an Ofay employed by a spade, the crowd follows him
nightly.>>

----------

29 May 1915: p. 5:

<<Cecil Moore, of Moore & Jenkins, arrived from the coast. He met with
an awful accident in Omaha and had to cancel four weeks. He was shot by
a cracker on the train, but the Ofay got 15 years. There's justice
somewhere in the United States.>>

----------

26 June 1915: p. 5:

<<The Ofays all gave him the glad hand, as well as the jigs, as he was
on this show last season.>>

----------

"Ofay" (with apparent variant [or typo.] "Fofay") is often opposed to
"Jigwalk" (with apparent variants -- e.g., "Gewauk" and [probably]
"Jig"). There is also "Spade". None of these seems to be necessarily
derogatory or offensive. I suppose "huckish" may be related to "Huck" =
"black person" (1929, HDAS).

-- Doug Wilson

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