Timeline for The "old switcheroo": Where did the "-eroo" suffix come from?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 19, 2017 at 18:42 | history | edited | Sven Yargs | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added three new (to me) entries from Wentworth's list.
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| Nov 19, 2017 at 1:30 | vote | accept | Robusto | ||
| Nov 18, 2017 at 21:47 | history | edited | Sven Yargs | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added sections on show-business use of 'floperoo' and on the origins of 'buckaroo'.
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| Nov 18, 2017 at 16:00 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @Robusto See also n. wanderoo 1681 (India), n. gillaroo 1733 (Ireland), adj. puckeroo 1844 (New Zealand), n. cockamaroo 1851 (England), n. munyeroo 1896 (Australia), n. twisteroo 1963 (United States). | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 14:41 | comment | added | Robusto | @SvenYargs: All good points, all germane and interesting. Can you add them to the text of your answer so that they can't disappear (also making them a bit more readable)? Thanks! | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 14:32 | history | edited | Arm the good guys in America | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
typo
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| Nov 18, 2017 at 10:49 | comment | added | D Krueger | @Clare A search at Chronicling America finds "buckaroo" in Oregon in 1881 and in Idaho in 1882. | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 8:38 | comment | added | Xanne | Pam Peters "Australian English As a Regional Epicenter" (In World Englishes Problems, Properties, and Prospects, 2007) attributes the surge in the productivity of the -eroo ending in Australia to the World War II era when Marines took R&R in Australia. There's an interesting short list of -eroo examples--19th & 20th centuries. books.google.com/… | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 6:31 | comment | added | Sven Yargs | ... Then comes another "Buccaroo Jim," who "made himself conspicuous while the Salvation Army was conducting its usual street ceremonies by approaching Mrs. Taylor, wife of the Captain, and in his drunken condition making a beastly proposal to her." And the last in this group involves "a 'buccaroo' [who] at the time was buccarooing for his father." So there is fairly strong circumstantial evidence that buckaroo antedates floperoo, switcheroo, and the other show-business -eroos. The question is whether this is a case of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc"—and that I cannot tell. | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 6:28 | comment | added | Sven Yargs | @Clare: Buckaroo/buccaroo/bucaroo appears multiple times in California newspapers duing the period 1888–1893. The earliest instance involves "Buckaroo Jim," a prisoner (later referred to as "the Indian," although his ethnic status was not previously mentioned in the story) who helped murder a sheriff and then escaped from the Grant County (Oregon) jail. The next is a brief mention of "a sheep buckaroo's hat" in a story about counting sheep. The next several instances involve "Buckaroo [or 'Buccaroo' or 'Bucaroo'] Bill," a notorious horse thief. ... | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 2:37 | comment | added | Robusto | +1 Thoughtful, comprehensive, and well presented, Sven, as is customary with you. It sounds right to suggest that the confection resonated with the movie industry (I can envisage a Variety headline with the word "stinkeroo" in it). Yet it bothers me that no smoking gun appears to point us unerringly toward a solution, because I intuit that finding an answer to the riddle of how and why such affixes come into the language would tell us something important. | |
| Nov 18, 2017 at 1:32 | history | edited | Robusto | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed typo
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| Nov 18, 2017 at 0:44 | history | answered | Sven Yargs | CC BY-SA 3.0 |