I was recollecting that “Whoda thunkit?” was a line in The Great Gatsby, spoken by Daisy or perhaps Jordan a couple of times. I thought at the time I read it that it was to show that they were unsophisticated social climbers. But trying to look it up I find it might have been to show they were modern misses, using trendy '20s slang.
But now I can’t find the phrase searching online editions. Perhaps I’m thinking of the '70s movie?
The use of “thunk” seems to appear in Babbit in the '20’s and Finnegans Wake in the '30s, etc. So it seems to have had general currency.
So anyway, is there a famous source for Who’da thunkit? ( perhaps other spellings )
I use it very occasionally because I remember it from Mad Magazine as “Who’d-a thunk it?” It was in “The Bunch”, a parody of the movie The Group, based on the book by Mary McCarthy. It was Candice Bergen’s first film. In the book preview on Amazon, I found this on page 5:
I’ve only seen the last few minutes of the movie and don’t remember how the phrase was rendered or if it was there at all. I have no idea if any of those is the ultimate source of the phrase or if they just majorly popularized it.
The first time I remember hearing it was on an episode of Andy of Mayberry (or The Andy Griffith Show, not sure what the official name was), possibly spoken by Barney Fife. I couldn’t tell you which episode.
Here’s the clip I remembered, but the phrase is not there. Larry Hagman is, though! Featured Content on Myspace
Interesting clip as a reflection of the time and situation. “I never took you for a sapphic. A lesbo.” :eek:
Some friends of mine in freshman year of college (68-69) had a catch phrase of “Otis Pumpkin!?” This came about because somebody misheard the phrase “whoda thunkit?” The utterer didn’t come up with the phrase spontaneously, so it was in the air or possibly old hat by then. Nobody was surprised by its use.
It was used from at least the 1880s and can be found by using a Google Book search for “thunk it” from 1880-1920, or whatever period you wish.
The 1885 cite is
It’s considered a “borrowing of vulgar pronounciations” by a linguist who wrote an article in the 1930s. I’m not linking to her article, but rather to a post by Dr. Laurence Horn over at the American Dilect Society Mailing list. You might have to search the page for “thunk.” (Use "control F)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0801C&L=ADS-L&D=0&P=20462
added: I can find it used in the NY Times(1853).
Well, 1885 outdoes my guess.
Curiously enough, I discovered by trying the Oxford English Dictionary, the original Old English forms of “think” were the “strong verb” think, thank, thunk. And there are cognates in other Germanic languages, apparently. Then in the Middle English period it got merged with “thought” which had been entirely separate as a noun. Merriam-Webster says thunk is dialectical, so I guess it never went away.