spook

[Wilson Gray]

Interesting. Lacking other evidence and having never heard of the
movie, I'd say that the first _spooks_ refers to a black couple. Not
that it *has* to, mind you.. I'm just saying, IM *personal* E.

As for the second one, it reads like a stop on the road to _spook_ as
"ghost" or other supernatural being, in view of the fact that people
were afraid to mess with them.

FWIW, GTr yields

"Ghost Alley" and even "Spook Alley"

for Amsterdam's

_Spooksteeg_

--
-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

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 8:21 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: spook
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Nearer to the original meaning but still an antedating:
>
> 1936 Â _The Training School Bulletin_ XXXIV 174 [GB: snippet, confirmed at
> HathiTrust]: For many centuries people with queer minds were either made
> fun of, or thought to be some kind of spook, and nobody dared to hurt them;
> which of course was very silly. Sometimes...their actions were strange and
> their speech mixed up.
>
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â spook
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Not in OED in the sense of "an offensive or markedly unusual person;
>> weirdo.'"
>>
>> HDAS files has 1942-1981. But the following is in a famous movie:
>>
>> 1953 Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, & Richard L. Breen _Niagara_ (film):
>> We wait three years for a honeymoon and then find we're spending it with a
>> couple of spooks!
>>
>> JL
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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