[Ads-l] OED updates (UNCLASSIFIED)

[MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (USA)]

CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED


> 
> ----
> 
> On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 2:59 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Debbie Downer -- OED has 26 Aug 2004 p 90 col 2 NY _Daily News_ 4 May
> > 2004 "That's because during one skit, ironically titled 'Debbie
> > Downer,' the entire cast fell victim to an infectious giggle fit."
> >
> 
> The OED's etymology notes that the SNL sketch with Rachel Dratch aired on May 1, 2004. The first cite from Aug. 26 (Gwyneth Paltrow to
> Oprah: "I'm Debbie Downer over here") is, as Katherine Martin noted on Twitter, the earliest that the OED has found for the *allusive* use
> of "Debbie Downer"
> to refer to a gloomy, pessimistic person.
> 
> https://twitter.com/kconnormartin/status/1073232123891453952
> 
> --bgz
> 

Thanks Ben -- I missed that specific allusive use there, and am not able to antedate it.

But any dictionary that includes Debbie Downer should also include Gloomy Gus, who was introduced as a character in Frederick Opper's comic strip for the Hearst Syndicate, "Happy Hooligan", on 20 Apr 1902.  Gloomy Gus was Happy's long-lost brother.

It entered allusive use by July:
_Nashville American_ 11 July 1902 p 6 col 4
[headline] "Hit 'Gloomy Gus' Curves Real Hard" 
The opposing pitcher was August Weyhing, who was presumably sad because he gave up 14 hits in eight innings.

And in a corollary to Shapiro's Law, the July 6 1902 NY Daily Tribune (p. 7 col 2) mentions a racing yacht named "Gloomy Gus".

By August, "Gloomy Gus" was a character name in vaudeville shows, unrelated to Opper's strip. And from then on, you see numerous people whose name is Gus tagged as "Gloomy Gus" (some people whose name isn't Gus, for that matter).
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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