[Ads-l] Miscellany

[Jonathan Lighter]

Earliest ex. of "wimpy"?   Dunno:

1943 Keith Ayling _Semper Fidelis_   (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin) 155: A
certain marine, Private Wendling -- "Wimpy Wendling," as Hurlbut dubbed
him. "Wimpy" was only five feet, six inches and weighed about a hundred and
forty. "He looks about as pugnacious as Caspar Milquetoast and has never
had a fistfight in all his twenty years," wrote Hurlbut. In civilian life,
Wimpy was employed by a greeting-card company.

If this is a simple application of the J. Wellington Wimpy name, it's odd
that there's no reference to hamburgers, obesity, cadging, or even a funny
mustache.

JL


On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 7:44 PM George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>
wrote:

> He's _your_ fresh an' brud!
>
> Oh!  "flesh and blood"!  I get it!
>
> GAT
>
> On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 5:35 PM Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > fresh an' brud
> >
> > That is a really *old-fashioned* style of pronunciation! Not sure that
> I've
> > ever heard it, but I usually see it in representations of slave-speech.
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 17, 2021 at 1:26 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Some of you may know that long before the Internet I used to write
> notes
> > on
> > > cards.  Some of these were on matters of minor linguistic interest.
> (Now
> > I
> > > post things immediately to the list.)
> > >
> > > I just found a bunch of these at the bottom of an old crate and will
> post
> > > some here.
> > >
> > > For a start:
> > > I
> > > 1902 W. W. Naughton KIngs of the Queensberry Realm_ (Chicago:
> > Continental)
> > > 41: The old Donnybrook formula, "Wherever you see a head, hit it."
> > >
> > > II
> > > 1996 Black woman, age ca.27 on _Rolanda_ (syn. TV series) (taped in
> NYC):
> > > He's _your_ fresh an' brud!  [Clearly enunciated].
> > >
> > > III
> > > OK, not linguistic:
> > >
> > > 1907 _World To-Day_ (Jan. 21): It has been shown beyond reasonable
> doubt
> > > that all attempts at professionalizing football are likely to fail. For
> > one
> > > thing, the game is too dangerous for men to take up as a livelihood.
> > >
> > > (And that's just for one thing!)
> > >
> > > JL
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society -
> >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=nXvIlGPaA0afSqTVKLEjLr-TWuNju_R9QmeTon-yWss&s=lHBJ0WE2_Msjg_BXCC6Ns60FtJLriUj-s6qnHk_oLXE&e=
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > - Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
> >
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=DwIBaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=v2Wtu7DQZxSBMSJv-oEMNg&m=nXvIlGPaA0afSqTVKLEjLr-TWuNju_R9QmeTon-yWss&s=lHBJ0WE2_Msjg_BXCC6Ns60FtJLriUj-s6qnHk_oLXE&e=
> >
>
>
> --
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998.
>
> But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
> your lowly tomb. . .
> L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112
>
> The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
> picture of his great-grandfather.)
>
> http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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