Some notes and Obs on pp. 667 ff

[David Payne]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008, Mark <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:



>In the TIMES Word Watching column the word SKEEZICKS appeared. The definition: A good-for-nothing rogue. U.S. slang. Fanciful? 
>1908: This is a poor skeezicks that's got nothing to eat but an onion.
 
I assume you pulled this from the ODE. I like this quote from their usage examples: "1875 J.G. Holland Sevenoaks iii. 40 If there's anything awful bad..in [the word] Skeezacks I should say that Tom Buffum was an old Skeezacks."
 
> I wonder if there is any relationship between this SKEEZICKS an 
>another SKEEZIX (note spelling) from the very early comic strip 
>"Gasoline Alley."
 
All's I know is that Skeezix "Keep[s] America Dancing": http://www.skeezixmusic.com/ (Oh, them floatin' heads ... me nightmares!)
 
>Many dictionaries say "wog" possibly derives from the Golliwogg, a blackface minstrel doll character from a children's book published in 1895. ...
 
The OED says that the origins of the word "wog" are unknown (all while hinting suggestively at an unspecified acronym), which I suspect is a bit disingenuous. As a verb, "wog" means to pinch (steal). As for "Golliwogg" there's a theory floating about that Golliwog was *not* a blackface minstrel doll, but that he bore such an uncanny resemblance to a blackface minstrel doll that everyone just assumed -- tho' I'm unable to pull a citation at the moment? This theory is so obviously BS that I trust it implicitly. At any rate, Golliwog makes a rather marvelous appearance in Alan Moore's "Black Dossier."
 
 
 
 
 
 

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