"goodie two-shoes"

Sat Mar 1 01:36:57 UTC 2014

At 2/28/2014 04:28 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>On Feb 28, 2014, at 1:51 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
> > Why is "goodie" good, but "goodie two-shoes" not so good?

>
>"goodie-goodie" isn't so good either.  Too good
>to be true/too good for one's own good.  Not
>sure where the two shoes came from, though.

Under "two", Compounds: "Two-shoes n. nickname of
the girl heroine of the History of Little Goody
Two-shoes; hence, a quasi-proper name for a child."
      1765   Hist. Goody Two-Shoes i. iii.
21   The Pleasure she took in her two Shoes..by
that Means [she] obtained the Name of Goody Two-Shoes.

Some years ago I sent Jesse the following
quotation from 1665: "He called his mother ...
Gammar Two Shooes".  Narr. Case John Porter, Jun.
in N. B. Shurtleff Rec. Governor & Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New Eng. (1853–4) IV.
216.  He was not being polite (this is from the
same source as "piss-house", "shitabed",
"shit-house", and the
not-yet-accepted-as-actually-English "ram
bugger"), and he came close to being executed for
being a rebellious son -- so I don't think it's a
"quasi-proper name for a child".

Joel

>LH
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 5:48 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> >> Subject:      "weenie", the alternative "MacGuffin"? And other movie terms
> >> from
> >>              1946
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> New York Herald Tribune, 20 October 1946 (Sunday), THIS WEEK
> >> magazine, article "Cliff-Hangers", by William Roberts, pp. 15, 26, & 27.
> >>
> >> This article about the current process of producing movie serials has
> >> the following:
> >>
> >> "The most important element of a serial plot is the 'weenie,' that
> >> is, the object of all the mayhem that takes place from episodes one
> >> to 13.  [Later, the writer indicates that 13 is the last
> >> episode.]  The weenie can be a map, a document, a mine, an oriental
> >> scarab with mystic powers, an invention, or, as in one case, a Nazi
> >> plot to gain control of 'Middle Africa.' To justify the number of
> >> people done to death during the course of the action, the weenie must
> >> have fabulous importance attached to it. It must be the most valuable
> >> map, document, mine, etc., in the world."  P. 26, col. 3.
> >>
> >> The weenie has some similarity to the MacGuffin, at least as
> >> explained by Wikipedia: "a plot device in the form of some goal,
> >> desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues,
> >> often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of
> >> a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. The most
> >> common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person; other types
> >> include money, victory, glory, survival, power, love, or other things
> >> unexplained."
> >>
> >> I will not try to analyze the difference, since I am not a recognized
> >> film critic or lexicographer.
> >>
> >> "weenie" in this sense is not in OED3.
> >>
> >> Other movie terms claimed by the article (p. 27, cols. 2 and 3) are:
> >>
> >> "clean heavy": the leading heavy, "the suave, sinister figure behind
> >> the villainy".  Not in OED3 ("heavy", short for "heavy villain", is).
> >>
> >> "dirty (or "dog") heavy": "the wretch who performs the strong-arm
> >> thuggery".  Neither is in OED3.
> >>      "dirty heavy": GBooks has several.  One is alleged to be
> >> Collier's Illustrated Weekly - Volume 81 - Page 12 (1928): "In motion
> >> pictures we have light heavies, heavies and dirty heavies, and the
> >> ex-pug of the cauliflower ears and broken nose is usually cast as a
> >> dirty heavy."  Others are 1982, 1989, 1990, 1994.
> >>      "dog heavy": GBooks alleges several.  1947, Billboard - Nov 1,
> >> 1947 - Page 49 ("dirty-dog heavies"; full view); 1952/1954; and 1960s
> >> through 2013.
> >>
> >> "goodie" (or "goody"): hero, heroine, or ally.  Not in OED3.  GBooks
> >> has at least 2007 (Take Me to Your Leader), but even with "movies"
> >> added too many to search through.
> >>
> >> "cheater-cut":  "the introduction of a few feet of film showing a
> >> hitherto-unnoticed avenue of escape for the intended victim."  Not in
> >> OED3.  GBooks has 1973 (An illustrated glossary of film terms), 1977,
> >> 1979, and a few later, mostly definitions rather than use.
> >>
> >> American Notes & Queries - Volume 6 - Page 119 (1946?) appears to
> >> quote from the NYHT article ... or vice versa.  GBooks, snippet.
> >>
> >> I can send a PDF to those who wish one. (The article itself is an
> >> amusing take on the production of serials.)
> >>
> >> Joel
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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