[Ads-l] Yosemite Sam and "tarnation"

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Mon Sep 9 15:39:44 UTC 2024


If not Walter Brennan, there's always Gabby Hayes. Hayes used "tarnation"
in the 1938 movie "The Frontiersman":

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030161/quotes/
Windy Haliday: What in tarnation are you so fired head up about?

--bgz

On Sun, Sep 8, 2024 at 6:08 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would have expected a Walter Brennan character rather than a cartoon
> parody of a Walter Brennan character.
>
> On Sun, Sep 8, 2024, 4:05 PM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > An exploration of _tarnation_, including the (apparently false) belief
> > that it is in fact a characteristic exclamation of Yosemite Sam:
> >
> > https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-in-tarnation-is-tarnation
> >
>

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