[Ads-l] hissy (1932), hissy fit (1943)

dave@wilton.net dave at WILTON.NET
Thu Sep 24 14:26:52 UTC 2026


OED has 1934 for "hissy" (quoting DARE quoting American Speech) and 1967 for "hissy fit."
 
J. M. V. “Back Talk.” Seminole Producer (Seminole, Oklahoma), 2 December 1932, 2/3. Newspaper.com. (The page is labeled “Two,” but is the eighth page. There seems to be a missing section designation as page numbering restarts with the seventh page, which contains a full-page ad and no page number.)

"It might interest the 'Pore Old Prorated Oil Field Boy' to know that two city people threw a 'hissy' over his letter, calling down the wrath of all the gods there be on his anonymous head."
 
 
“The Windjammer” News-Review (Oklahoma City), 25 November 1943, 2/2. Newspapers.com.

Rev. Mathes thinks some of the old shell-backs that have hissy fits every time the younger generation have a good time have the same complex as those old timers who stoned the prophets and burned the witches in Salem. They also forget that they used to kick their heels pretty high when they were young.
 
 
I also found many older newspaper uses of "hissy" to mean, I presume, "hissed," as in, "John hissy 'X.'"
 

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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