[Ads-l] most important unresolved English etymologies?

[Jonathan Lighter]

And "skag." And "skank." And "skivvy." And "splib." And "spiffy." Also
"schmo" and "schnook." And "snooker." And "zilch." And "barf." And "flub"
and "flubdub."  And "fuddy-duddy." And "scad." Sorry to exploit my age here.

JL

On Sat, Feb 7, 2026 at 4:39 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I suggest looking at the article titled "Etymology Unknown: Toward a
> Master List of Words of Obscure Origin," published in American Speech,
> Summer 1981 issue, pp. 146-148.
>
> Fred Shapiro
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Stephen Goranson <00001dd3d6fc15d3-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, February 6, 2026 4:17 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: most important unresolved English etymologies?
>
> Pop quiz [is that one of them?]
> Long ago I asked a similar question, and one of the then more skilled
> responders, Doug Wilson, advised to pay attention to the list discussions.
> Given that my memory is limited, and (boring story) I lost some old
> emails, and the available archives may not be complete or accurately
> searchable, what say ye, if you care to venture, are a few of the chief
> remaining English word origin puzzles?
>
> Stephen G
>
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