[Ads-l] yeehaw -> Gee/Haw?

wh5mith wh5mith at BELLSOUTH.NET
Tue Feb 24 00:51:03 UTC 2015


"Gee" means "turn right", not "left".
Bill

 
A brilliant casuist disproved every false generalization.  He is justly known lately.  Moreover, no pompous quibbler really said that useful verities were xenophobic yet zealous.


On Monday, February 23, 2015 7:30 PM, "guy1656 at centurylink.net" <guy1656 at CENTURYLINK.NET> wrote:
 


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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       "guy1656 at centurylink.net" <guy1656 at CENTURYLINK.NET>
Subject:      Re: yeehaw -> Gee/Haw?
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"A vivid, though partisan[,] account of the 'rebel yell' is given by
Gilbert Adam Hayes of the 63rd Pennsylvania in <i>Under the Red
Patch</i> (Pittsburgh, 1908) 240-1: 'The peculiarity of the rebel yell
is worthy of mention, but none of the old soldiers who heard it once
will ever forget it..."

>From footnotes of an Oxford Univ Press re-publication in 1998 of Stephen
Crane's 'The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories"

Meanwhile, could Yee-Haw be at all related to 'Gee' and 'Haw,' voice
commands directed at draft animals to move left or right?
If so, I always wondered if 'Haw' for right might be related to Swedish
'hoger' ?


- GLL


On 02/23/2015 03:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: rebel yell and yeehaw
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> One day earlier in _The Oregonian_ (Portland), p. 11.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 6:44 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:

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