|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1 |
The first use of "druthers" that I can recall is by cartoonist Al Capp in his "L'il Abner" comic strip. I began "reading" the strip on my father's lap about 1950. Druthers was one of my father's favourite words, and I know he attributed it to L'il Abner. Capp may not have coined the word, but he certainly did much to popularize it. One of the songs in the 1956 Broadway musical "L'il Abner" was entitled "If I Had My Druthers".
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
My Mom used that expression as well but I didn't think about where it came from.
PS welcome and I love the name
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
M-W dates it from 1870; and Mark Twain used it in Tom Sawyer.
-joe (there ain't any druthers about it) friday
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 4 |
My wife grew up in London and her younger sister once asked her 'How do you spell "narf" as in "I don' narf fancy him"?'
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
My wife grew up in London and her younger sister once asked her 'How do you spell "narf" as in "I don' narf fancy him"?' Shouldn't that be "'im" wivou' the haitch? I also remember druthers from Lil Abner.
Last edited by The Pook; 03/31/08 10:25 AM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1
stranger
|
|
stranger
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1 |
I learned the word from Lil Abner. As I recall, at the time the series had introduced a breakfast cereal called "Druthers." Its advertising slogan was "I 'druther have Druthers."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
1870
The etymological process: a reanalysis of I'd rather as I druther, and then a nominalization and subsequent pluralization of druthers.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
It is entirely possible that it has more than one source. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that more than one person independently thought of compounding "I'd" and "rather" and then (as the lettered one put it) nominalizing and pluralising (and possessivising and subjunctivising!) it as "If I had my druthers."
Last edited by The Pook; 03/31/08 11:03 PM.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290 |
It is entirely possible that it has more than one source.
Sure it's possible. It's also possible that Al Capp was familiar with the work of Mark Twain. It's also possible that both Twain and Capp heard it from ordinary folks talking (folks who never got around to writing it down), and that neither of them coined it. There are other possibilities.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
And the big step is not the vowel shift of rather to ruther or the shift of the d from I'd to druther but the nouning of the adverb. Dunno so much about Capp, but Twain was an excellent recorder of dialects.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,892
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
403
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
|
|
