[Ads-l] Thoughts on "doodly-squat"

[Ben Zimmer]

No worries, Virginia!

By the way, I've added an update to the Strong Language post with an early
musical use of "doodly-squat" from Blind Willie McTell’s 1935 song,
"Hillbilly Willie’s Blues": "My baby got a house an' a lot / Poor me ain't
got doodly-squat, darlin'." (This is noted in Stephen Calt's _Barrelhouse
Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary_.) That's still a year after the earliest
Zora Neale Hurston example, from _Jonah's Gourd Vine_ (1934).

--bgz

On Tue, May 2, 2023 at 9:45 AM Virginia Euwer Wolff <veuwerwolff at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you, especially, for your rich essay, and I apologize for my
> mistake.
>
> On Tue, May 2, 2023 at 9:38 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I mention that example (along with others from Hurston) in my Strong
>> Language post.
>>
>> On Tue, May 2, 2023 at 9:05 AM Virginia Euwer Wolff <
>> veuwerwolff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Zora Neale Hurston's 1935 book, Mules and Men, in Perennial Library's
>>> edition, 1990, page 64:
>>>
>>> " 'Oh, Ah ain't got doodley squat,' I countered."
>>>
>>> It's in Hurston's narrative voice, with that spelling and no hyphen.
>>>
>>> Virginia
>>>
>>> > On Apr 30, 2023, at 12:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> a serious scholar might spend years on the study of wretched subjects
>>> >
>>> > Never do this!
>>> >
>>> > JL
>>> >
>>> > On Sun, Apr 30, 2023 at 10:51 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
>>> > adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Impressive etymological excavation, Ben. Thanks for sharing.
>>> >> Garson
>>> >>
>>> >> On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 10:58 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Of potential interest: a new post of mine on the Strong Language
>>> blog,
>>> >>> remembering Billy "The Kid" Emerson, who brought "squatitives" to the
>>> >>> masses with his 1955 song "Red Hot" ("My gal is red hot / Your gal
>>> ain't
>>> >>> doodly-squat").
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2023/04/29/your-gal-aint-doodly-squat/
>>> >>>
>>> >>> List regulars Jonathan Lighter and Larry Horn are liberally cited.
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>
>>

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