[Ads-l] Skedaddle, skedaddling (incremental antedating to 1858?; 1859)

Wed Mar 17 18:01:01 UTC 2021

So is "skidao" the origin of "skidoo"?

JL

On Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 12:45 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks. Peter. Apologies for missing your valuable article on this topic.
>
> Regarding "scud": A letter writer in August 1862 referred to Gaelic,
> Welsh, and Swedish while suggesting that skedaddle may have been
> constructed from scud+daddle or skud+daddle. Follow the link to see
> the clipping with the full text.
>
> Date: August 30, 1862
> Newspaper: Rutland Daily Herald
> Newspaper Location: Rutland, Vermont
> Article: Origin of "SKEDADDLE"
> Author: A correspondent in Albany Evening Journal (reprinted)
> Quote Page 2, Column 3
> Database: Newspapers.com
>
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73689220/scud-and-daddle/
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> "Skedaddle" might be derived more naturally from skud or scud and
> daddle than from the Greek "Skedao."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 11:51 AM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > I was browsing the McGregor newspaper to see some local history of my
> > nearby hometown, which is mentioned frequently in that paper.
> >
> > I ran across a word that might, maybe, could be related?  The word is
> > "scud," used at least regionally, apparently to mean leave, leave in a
> > hurry, or move quickly - like scoot.  "Scud" is used as a past tense.
> > Searching is difficult because most of the search results are for
> > "send," and many other results are from the more conventional sense of
> > "scudding."
> >
> > "Scud" appears to have a more common usage elsewhere, as a nautical term
> > with sailboats "scudding" in the wind, a yacht named "Scud," and as a
> > weather term for certain kinds of "scud" clouds.
> >
> > But at least regionally along the upper Mississippi, it appears to have
> > been used where "skedaddle" might later have been used, and I can
> > imagine someone elaborating on "scud" and adding "scud-addled" to be
> > funny.  No smoking gun, but a possibility?
> >
> > The one example I found is also from Mcgregor, Iowa.
> >
> > "A steamboat man came on shore the other day, enquired for 'Big Andy,'
> > took a look at him and scud instantly for the water!"
> > The North Iowa Times (Mcgregor, Iowa), June 13, 1860, page 2.
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73671783/the-north-iowa-times/
> >
> >
> > I found two other examples of "scud" as walking, but they do not seem to
> > be perfect matches.  In each case, they used a nautical term, "to scud
> > under bare poles," as a metaphor for how women walking with their
> > dresses gathered close to the body.  "To scud under bare poles"
> > apparently refers to a sailing ship at sea, under the effects of wind
> > and current, with their sails down - the masts, or poles, bare.
> >
> > One example, women gather up their clothing to walk home in the rain
> > (well, they thought it was raining).
> >
> > "The scamps got a few pails of water, and wet the stairs and sidewalk
> > with a thorough drenching, and stood all around the doorway with their
> > umbrellas wide spread; which ominous sight was taken by the young ladies
> > and their beaux as they came down stairs as a pretty good sign of rain
> > overhead.  It is said that the girls pulled out their handkerchiefs and
> > covered up their bonnets, and gathered their silks, lawns and dimity, in
> > their hands, and thus close reefed, under bare poles began to scud
> > towards home."
> > Racine Journal (Racine, Wisconsin), June 8, 1859, page 3.
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73672000/racine-journal/
> >
> >
> > Another example refers to women post-hoop skirt as "scudding along under
> > bare poles."
> >
> > "We notice that hoops are rapidly disappearing before fashion's
> > imperious mandate, and our belles who a few months since were sailing
> > along East Water Street like half inflated balloons, now scud along
> > under bare poles, looking like dismantled vessels."
> > North Iowa Times (Mcgregor, Iowa), March 21, 1860, page 1 (apparently a
> > reprint of an article from the Milwaukee Free Democrat about the end of
> > hoop skirt-fashion).
> > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/73676065/the-north-iowa-times/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > On Tue, Mar 16, 2021 at 3:23 PM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
> > <b.taylorblake at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > "Skedaddle" and variants have come up on the list before, with John
> > Baker
> > pushing this back to December, 1859. See his post and follow-ups:
> > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-April/141953.html.
> > (BTW, OED still shows as its earliest example one from 1861.)
> >
> >
> > 1) Here's something from McGregor, Iowa, in the fall of 1858, which
> > suggests that a form of "skedaddle" was at least in place there. I'm not
> > sure what "we will make it 'Skeedaddle'" means in the first text, though
> > "Skeedaddle" is, according to the second, clearly a nickname for someone
> > named Harrington. So, "we will make it 'Skeedaddle'" is obviously some
> > sort
> > of wordplay. (I wish "Skeedaddle" here meant "scatter," but does it seem
> > to
> > imply "appear"?)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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