salugi
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sat May 3 12:32:05 UTC 2014
Thanks, Garson.
And thanks too Sam for the update on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
But it contains no {saluggi} or any other possible spelling I could think
of.
Wikipedia reminds me that Hy Gardner was a prominent columnist for the N.Y.
Herald-Tribune. It reports his date of birth as 1908, in Manhattan.
JL
JL
On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 12:19 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: salugi
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> HathiTrust has a first edition of "Champagne Before Breakfast" by Hy
> Gardner copyright 1954 in full view.
>
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b134944
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b134944?urlappend=%3Bseq=320
>
> On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 11:57 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: salugi
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Here is a Google Books match for "salugi" in the appropriate sense
> > although a ball was snatched instead of a cap. The year looks solid
> > based on various sanity checks, but verification on paper is still
> > required.
> >
> > Year: 1954
> > Title: Champagne Before Breakfast
> > Author: Hy Gardner
> > Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York
> > Page 302
> > (Google Books snippet data may be inaccurate; worldcat agrees with
> > year; a snippet shows a copyright notice with year 1954)
> >
> >
> http://books.google.com/books?id=gq8_AAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=salugi
> >
> > [Begin excerpt visible in snippet]
> > I miss the sound of skates scraping over pavements . . . the shout,
> > "Ringaleavyo," or however they spelled it . . . The yell "salugi" when
> > one kid stole your ball and teased you by tossing it to anyone but its
> > owner . . . The welcome tinkle of an agate striking an immie in
> > competitive marble games...
> > [End execerpt]
> >
> > Garson
> >
> > On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 7:34 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >> Subject: Re: salugi
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On May 2, 2014, at 6:23 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>
> >>> The Files contain a printed example of "salugi" from a 1956 bestseller
> >>> about Brooklyn. It refers to the 1940s.
> >>>
> >>> 1956 Gerald Green _The Last Angry Man_ 207 [rpt. N.Y.: Pocket Books,
> >>> 1972]: They had seized the tan derby of one of their number...[and]
> were
> >>> tossing it around in a wild game of _salugi_.
> >>>
> >>> Green was born in 1922.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Yeah, you can tell. Our wild saluggis didn't involve tan derbies, more
> like baseball caps and gloves.
> >>
> >> L
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 5:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>> -----------------------
> >>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> >>>> Subject: Re: salugi
> >>>>
> >>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>
> >>>> Mr. Samuel Solomon of Forest Hills wrote to Hy Gardner's column in the
> >>>> Philadelphia Inquirer (Dec. 27, 1961), p. 13 to reminisce about "the
> good
> >>>> old days":
> >>>>
> >>>> "When New York City policemen wore a high, round grey helmet...When
> streets
> >>>> had lampposts lit by a man with a long stick...When we played the
> >>>> frustrating game of salugi, or however you spelled it. A toughie from
> >>>> another neighborhood would steal your ball, then taunt you by
> throwing it
> >>>> to everyone but you."
> >>>>
> >>>> (A tip o' the Saluggi hat to
> http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html !)
> >>>>
> >>>> My grandparents used to reminisce about the same things - except for
> the
> >>>> saluggi part, though my recollection is that my grandfather (b. 1884)
> was
> >>>> thoroughly familiar with the concept if not the word.
> >>>>
> >>>> The word "toughie" alone and the past tense of "spell" are almost
> enough to
> >>>> persuade me that Sam was relating a genuine memory of the ancient
> world.
> >>>>
> >>>> I believe that the virtual absence of this word in print is due to the
> >>>> difficulty of spelling it convincingly.
> >>>>
> >>>> A more chilling possibility is that in any era, the spoken vocabulary
> has
> >>>> little to do with its printed cousin. So give up on historical
> >>>> dictionaries.
> >>>>
> >>>> (The Old Fulton search function turned up a circa 1905 "Anti-Salooji
> >>>> League," but it was only a bad scan.)
> >>>>
> >>>> JL
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 3:47 PM, David Barnhart <
> dbarnhart at highlands.com
> >>>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>>> -----------------------
> >>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>>>> Poster: David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> >>>>> Subject: salugi
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>>>
> >>>>> With his pugnacious, street-tough manner, Buchanan looks as if he
> spent
> >>>> his
> >>>>> youth standing outside yeshivas and tormenting the Hebrew students by
> >>>>> playing salugi with their yarmulkes. Lars-Erik Nelson, "Dole's
> Feeling A
> >>>>> Pat
> >>>>> On Back Republicans Fear A Loose Bucannon," Daily News [New York]
> >>>> (Nexis),
> >>>>> Feb. 13, 1996, p 2
> >>>>>
> >>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>>
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> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
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> truth."
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> >>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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--
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