borrowing pronouns

[Dr. John E. McLaughlin and Michelle R. Sutton]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

Rick Mc Callister wrote:

> >  (2) Re borrowing a pronoun of one language into some other use in another
> >language: etymological dictionaries say that US English "bozo" = "fool" <
> >Spanish "vosotros":

>         That sounds pretty farfetched. More likely it came from baboso
> "drooling idiot, drooling drunken idiot, etc."

> could it also be that the US English slang term of address
> >and then nickname "buster" came from the abovementioned Spanish dialect
> ><buste'>?, and not the English for "one who busts (= breaks) things".

>         I always heard buster was from "ballbuster"

I'm only a casual observer in this particular thread and haven't read every
post.  That said, I'm a little curious about "bozo".  OED says, 'origin
unknown' and cites the earliest occurrences as in the 1920s.  That surprised
me.  As a baby boomer, I always assumed (like everyone else born after 1950),
that the origin is in the TV clown's name.  I guess that's folk etymology?

John McLaughlin
Utah State University