spook

[Jonathan Lighter]

Naah, they're white: Joseph Cotten and Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn's trying to
murder Joe, but Joe kills her lover instead, which drives her insane, and
then more stuff happens till Joe's boat goes over the Falls.

But they're not nearly as weird (in, what, affect?) as is suggested in the
'36 ex.  Wilson's right about the semantic shifting going on before our
eyes. My guess is that the "weirdo" sense is a trivialization of what used
to be scary, especially for kids.

BTW, by '42 "spook" was being defined as GI lingo for "a homely girl,"
which, I believe, is too narrow.  It would not apply to Marilyn Monroe.
Those newspaper slang glossaries are never up to snuff anyway.

JL
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 9:34 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: spook
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
> > ---------------------- 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 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
> >> -----------------------
> >> 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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