Two items of fun from languagehat:
First, an interview with J.L. Lighter of UT on slang and his work on the much-anticipated final volumes of his "Historical Dictionary of American Slang" [ via languagehat -> Wordorigins -> Oxford University Press ]. And who doesn't love slang? It's the most ut. Interesting facts: no one knows the origin of "yankee," "dixie," or "jazz" (how can we not know the origin of such recent words?). "Spondulix" is slang for money (man, I'm using that one the first chance I get). No one ever uses the phrase "twenty-three skidoo" anymore, but everyone recognizes it (what's up with that?). In the 1600s and 1700s, "occupy" was a euphemism for sex (such ribaldry). Slang is interesting because it illustrates the slippery, changeability of language. These words are under the radar of standard English, so their origins and lives are more organic and volatile.
Second, a a reverse dictionary search [ via languagehat -> MonkeyFilter ]. This is one of those man-what-a-cool-tool things that will probably/unfortunately get lost in my bookmarks and forgotten for its infrequent need. Then again, I daily hit the dictionary and thesaurus for one reason or another. This might become an equally frequented site.
Nice meeting you at the blogfest.
One theory about "dixieland" is the area's french history. The french fur traders were apparently paid in 10 franc amounts and "dix" is french for 10. So, the south is a land full of 10's.
Posted by: Robert at September 18, 2005 12:56 AMLighter had a long response on that. He said it was very unlikely because there's no documented evidence linking the two. The first reference to "Dixie" is from a minstrel song of 1859 called "Dixie's Land" (in which you're wishing you were in the land of cotton...). Lighter's favorite theory is one I'd never heard of: linking Dixie to the Mason-Dixon line. Of course, there's no evidence for that either, so I guess different linguists have different preferences.
You'd think someone would have written something down. I'm sure some people would give a lot of spondulix to know the answer.
Posted by: sstrader at September 18, 2005 11:38 AM