[Ads-l] QOTY 1958

[Jonathan Lighter]

Stephen Gorenson antedated "gizmo" to 1938 a couple of years ago.

Early exx. (from 1938-45) are associated with the U.S.Marine Corps.

In early use also applied derisively to male humans.

JL

On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 6:06 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:

> > 1949   R. A. Heinlein Red Planet iii. 26   Now what is this gismo? When
> you brought it aboard I thought it was a volley ball.
>
> Just to note - here, the "gismo" is a living (albeit Martian so ...)
> creature, not a "manufactured" (even if it's just bent coat hangers)
> thingamabob or dohickie.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 2:06 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Antedated in OED under “gismo” but with a couple of cites brandishing the
> > standard U.S. spelling:
> >
> > U.S. slang.
> >
> > A gadget, gimmick, ‘thingumajig’ (see quots.).
> >
> > 1943   Time 19 July 69/1   Gizmo—a term of universal significance,
> capable
> > of meaning ‘gadget’, ‘stuff’, ‘thing’, ‘whozis’ or almost anything else
> the
> > speaker wants it to.
> > 1949   R. A. Heinlein Red Planet iii. 26   Now what is this gismo? When
> > you brought it aboard I thought it was a volley ball.
> > 1954   C. Williams Touch of Death (1955) i. 7   She was working the strap
> > of the halter gizmo up between her arm and her side.
> > 1967   Observer 21 May 21/2   To help him ‘shoot’ [photographs], he
> > used..a ‘gismo’—a small cardboard tube which he presses against the
> camera
> > lens.
> > 1970   New Yorker 1 Aug. 26/3   Every gismo that made use of a clothes
> > hanger will be demonstrated by its inventor.
> >
> > Not to be confused with gitmo.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > > On Jul 11, 2018, at 2:47 PM, Mark Mandel <mark.a.mandel at GMAIL.COM>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > (Hand to forehead) Gro-o-oan! But, yeah, back then. Yuch.
> > >
> > > Mark, who remembers, though barely
> > >
> > > On Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 12:54 PM Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> 1958 Charles Beaumont & Ben Hecht _Queen of Outer Space_ (film):
> > >>
> > >> "The ray that destroyed the space station and knocked us off our
> course
> > may
> > >> have originated right here." "Oh, come off it! How could a bunch of
> > women
> > >> invent a gizmo like that?"
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> JL
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> > truth."
> > >>
> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >>
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org