dorky, n. (1965)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Officer" Joe Bolton's _Three Stooges Funhouse_ was on at my house every
afternoon at 5:30 (WPIX Channel 11) from 1958 till I got sick of the
Stooges (1959).

That's where I first heard "nyuk nyuk."

JL

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 2:18 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: dorky, n. (1965)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Maybe the L. A. Times left off the tilde.  An alternate hypothesis, that
> the palatalization was a later development, seems unlikely; at least I too
> only remember it as "nyuk nyuk" from the 60s or earlier.
>
> LH
>
> On Mar 3, 2012, at 12:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> > "Nuk nuk" must be from Curly of the Three Stooges.
> >
> > I'd write it "Nyuk nyuk."
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Ben Zimmer
> > <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:
> >
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >> Subject:      dorky, n. (1965)
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Today's OED Word of the Day is "dorky" ('contemptible or pathetic;
> >> spec. socially awkward, unfashionable'), with cites from 1970. HDAS
> >> and GDoS have "dork" ('a stupid or obnoxious person') from 1967.
> >>
> >> Here's "dorky" as a noun in the sense of "dork" from 1965:
> >>
> >> 1965 _Los Angeles Times_ 30 Nov. C4/4 In Eau-Claire, Wis., an
> >> unpleasant fellow is a "dorky," and "nuk nuk" is the response to a
> >> not-too-funny joke. [Sylvie Reice, "The Swinging Set," syndicated
> >> column]
> >>
> >> --bgz
> >>
> >> --
> >> Ben Zimmer
> >> http://benzimmer.com/
> >>
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