Twelve English etymologies from the social margins (Part 2)

Abstract

Etymologies are proposed for twelve previously unexplained English words from working-class or underclass English vocabulary. Treated in Part 2 of this study are aloof/aluff, boondoggle, and welch/jew/gyp. Common features are isolation, extended use, pejoration, and treatment by lexicographers with varying degrees of proscriptiveness and by word buffs with enthusiastic amateur etymologizing. Boondoggle: The OED identifies boondoggle as an Americanism and defines it as ‘a trivial, useless, or unnecessary undertaking; wasteful expenditure’. As the entry has not been updated since its first publication in 1972, a revised commentary should expand the semantic field to include possible intentionality, political maneuvering, and illicit gain. The earliest attestations are from the 1930s and reveal specific applications on scales of importance and volume, e.g. “The cost of this boondoggle has been estimated at perhaps 50 million dollars” (Chicago Tribune, 8 June, 1947, i. 22/2).2 More concretely: “ “Boon doggles” is simply a term applied back in the pioneer days to what we call gadgets today”.3 Even narrower usage: “To the cowboy it meant the making of saddle trappings out of odds and ends of leather, and they boondoggled when there was nothing else to do on the ranch” (Chicago Tribune, 4 October, 1935). 1 This is the second part of a study begun in Sayers (2020). 2 Cf. “[In the 1936 American election] ... boondoggling became the current term for describing the waste assertedly evident in ... government agencies and bureaus” (Oliver 1937). 3 Quoted from the OED, which gives the reference: R. Marshall, The New York Times, 4 April, 1935, p. 2.