There’s a commercial playing on NWCN, for an animal park. The commercial features a ‘country’-sounding guy singing about what you will see there, and he sings the word ‘animule’. I was going to ask the origin of that mispronunciation in GQ, but ‘GIYF’ and all that.
I turned up Saying It Wrong On Porpoise, which posted a summary of an article from American Speech that had been sent to a mailing list.
‘Bumbershoot’ surprised me. I’d always assumed it was a Britishism, but World Wide Words says it is of American origin, and first appeared in print in 1896. ‘It seems to have been yet another of those gloriously facetious bits of wordplay so characteristic of America in the nineteenth century.’ (Incidentally, Seattle’s Music and Arts Festival, called Bumbershoot, is starting in a couple of weeks.)
Oh my gosh me too! My husband and I have a running gag where when one of us does something incomprehensible to the other, we sort of yell “FOR NO RAISIN!” and then laugh like loons.
We used to say we were “swave and do-bone-yer” to prove we were “classy” and spoke fluent French-like.
We would say this while nibbling on horse do-vers.
I don’t know where it came from, but I decided to now and forever pronounce Baked Potato as Borked! Potato! around my house, preferably with an obnoxiously loud and exaggerated russian accent. You have to add a certain trill at the end of ‘Borked!’ to achieve maximum potential.
Lol. I said Li-Barry for the longest time, and “Stragedy” as opposed to “Strategy.” It caused endless ridicule as a child.
Anyhoo, old issues of “American Speech” are a hoot. That’s where I learned everything I ever wanted to know about “Schmaltz,” and other hip happening Jazz slang from the 30s!
ETA: You can find them on JSTOR, if you’re actually interested.
