[Ads-l] edumacation, edumacated (1925)

Sat Aug 2 12:20:51 UTC 2025

Earlier, from Newspapers.com :

1898 _Public Journal_ (Hastings, Neb.) (Oct. 14) 6 : The more I see of der
world, der worsens I language myself. I ought to be better edumacated. Till
I was half past twelve I lived next door to a school.

1908 _Indianapolis Star_ (May 24) 25:  De Republikaners Klub iss
organizationed mit de sole intents to edumacation de jointers to sticken
togedder.

JL

On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 7:43 PM Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      edumacation, edumacated (1925)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Alan C. L. Yu presented a paper at NELS 34 on "Reduplication in English
> Homeric Infixation": <http://washo.uchicago.edu/pub/nels34.pdf>.
>
> -----
> Homeric infixation is a morphological construction that has recently
> gained currency in Vernacular American English. People who are familiar
> with this construction invariably credit the TV animation series, The
> Simpsons, particularly the speech of the main character Homer Simpson, for
> popularizing this construction. The basic pattern is best illustrated with
> words with stress on odd-numbered syllables. In words which bear input
> stress on the 1st and 3rd syllables only, the infix, -ma-, invariably
> appears after the unstressed second syllable, whether the main stress is
> on the first or the third syllable.
> -----
>
> I'm not aware of Homer using the "-ma-" infix in any _Simpsons_ episode
> other than "Lisa's Sax" (3G02, airdate 10/19/97), in which Homer figures
> out that his daughter Lisa wants a "saxo-ma-phone" -- after guessing
> "vio-ma-lin", "tuba-ma-ba", and "oboe-ma-boe" (Yu's paper focuses on the
> partial reduplication that occurs when "-ma-" is infixed in a disyllable,
> as in the the last two examples).
>
> It's odd that Yu's paper doesn't mention the most common example of "-ma-"
> infixation: "edumacate" and its derived forms, particularly "edumacation".
>  (These forms lend themselves to dialect humor, of course, because they're
> used to make fun of those unedumacated types who try to make their speech
> sound sophistimacated.)
>
> Googlecounts for some variants:
>
> edumacation     27,000
> edumication      1,480
> edjumacation     2,330
> edjumication       675
> edjamacation       555
> edumakation        518
> ejumacation        231
> ejamacation        158
> edgumacation       154
>
> "Edumacation" is chiefly associated not with Homer Simpson but another
> epenthesis-prone cartoon character, Popeye.
>
> -----
> http://www.popeye-n-olive.com/characters.htm
> Although Olive is equally smitten with her heroic sailor, she's still
> easily impressed by anyone who has more "edumacation and ettiket" than
> Popeye.
> -----
>
> The only example I've found so far from the archives of "Thimble Theater
> Starring Popeye" is with the spelling "edjamacation":
>
> -----
> 1959 _Lancaster Eagle Gazette_ (Ohio) 27 Aug. 31 ["Thimble Theatre" comic
> strip by Tom Sims and B. Zaboly] Age makes no difference... Every blastid
> people is guaranteed an edjamacation an' me pappy didn't get his!!
> -----
>
> There are also listings on eBay and the rec.collecting newsgroup for a
> 1962 Viewmaster reel entitled "Swee'Pea's Edjamacation".
>
> The earliest examples for "edumacation" and "edumacated" that I've found
> are from two 1925 columns in a Virgina newspaper written in jocular German
> dialect spelling.
>
> * edumacation
>
> -----
> 1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 19 Nov. 7/6 (heading) What is, and by who comes
> the right idea of edumacation in Danville, Virginia?
> -----
> 1925 _Ibid_. Say, won't you please tell me once just what is Edumacation?
> Gives it the real idea of Edumcation by so many other citizens of
> Danville, or only by a few "trustys" of a habertacle. ... I don't know. I
> lacks Edumacation and I wants to know. ... Even mit my little Edumacation
> I read it that a house divided against itself can't stand it. ... Yours in
> the cause of trusty Edumacation, Chulius Gansheimer.
> -----
> 1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 21 Nov. 13/6 (heading) What gives it
> edumacation, and dot "patriotism" in Danville, Va.
> -----
> 1925 _Ibid_. Next I asks me vunce to help get der edumacation, you know.
> ... To me, it looks like the best defense Catolics got it now, is the
> search-light of publicity; and I believe, mit my little edumacation dey
> goin' now to use dot search-light. ... Yours in the cause of trusty
> Edumacation, Chulius Gansheimer.
> -----
>
> * edumacated
>
> -----
> 1925 _Bee_ (Danville, Va.) 21 Nov. 13/6 Yah! I writes me more questions
> and dings to try to get better edumacated. ... Again you look 'em up if
> you want to be edumacated on both sides.
> -----
>
> (The columns also have the forms "edumacational" and "unedumacational".)
>
> I would expect earlier examples could be found in Black English dialect
> writing, either jocular or not.  Here's a humorous example from Geneva
> Smitherman:
>
> -----
> 1976 G. SMITHERMAN in _English Journal_ 65 (2) Feb. 14/2 And if some of
> y'all need some mo edumacation in this area, just pressure yo school
> system to provide a staff development program.
> -----
>
> And here's a serious example, from the transcription of an ex-slave
> narrative recorded by the Federal Writers' Project:
>
> -----
> c1941 R. WILLIAMS in J. Mellon _Bullwhip Days_ (2002) 129 Dere am no
> edumacation for de niggers.
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0802138683/?v=search-inside&keywords=edumacation
> -----
>
> Mellon's _Bullwhip Days_ unfortunately does not give much background
> information on the narratives, but I believe this is the reference for the
> original transcription:
>
> -----
> http://people.albion.edu/JEP10/dp/research1.htm#_ftn22
> Rose Williams, Manuscript Slave Narrative Collection, Federal Writers'
> Project, 1941, vol. 17, Texas Narratives, Pt. 4, pp. 174-178, quoted in
> Nancy Woloch, ed., Early American Women: A Documentary History, 1600-1900
> (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), 245-246.
> -----
>
> The FWP slave narratives were first published in B. A. Botkin's _Lay My
> Burden Down_ (1945).  But Botkin cleaned up the transcriptions, as
> explained in the preface: "In accordance with the same criteria of truth
> and readability, the original attempts at dialect-writing, successful and
> unsuccessful, were abandoned, except for a few characteristic and
> expressive variations."  So the above sentence from Rose Williams is
> rendered as: "There am no education for the niggers."
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/038531115X/?v=search-inside&keywords=education
>
> A large portion of the online examples of "edumacation" and
> "(un)edumacated" are used in the service of racist humor (particularly on
> Usenet newsgroups).
>
> See also the Langmaker Neologism Profile on the "-ma-" infix:
>
> http://www.langmaker.com/db/eng_ma.htm
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
>

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

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