spook

[Wilson Gray]

I was considering a possible connection with Dutch, given that the
street name, _Spooksteeg_, must be something like half-a-millenium
old, at least, since it begins at the Zeedijk, a street that began
life in the thirteenth century as a path along the top of Amsterdam's
oldest dike, built for protection against the old Zuiderzee, now the
IJsselmeer. But that dream has been dashed.

_Of neem de Spooksteeg bij de Zeedijk, waarvan de oorsprong niet eens
bekend is – op zich al een mysterie_.

"Or take Spook Alley - off the Sea Dike - whereof the origin is no
longer known - a complete mystery in itself."

Oh, well.

It's more likely the case that the GTr translations of _spook_ as
"ghost, spook," etc., are based upon the meaning of _spook_ in
English.

Youneverknow,
--
-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 9:54 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> But they're not nearly as weird (in, what, affect?) as is suggested in the
> '36 ex. Â 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. Â It would not apply to Marilyn Monroe.
> Those newspaper slang glossaries are never up to snuff anyway.

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.

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