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Joined: May 2003
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newbie
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Wow! Never heard that one!
As for "rhubarb," Webster's Collegiate 10th gives the argument/flap meaning, but doesn't offer any connection ... sigh. All I can think of is that the leaves are poisonous.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I forgot to mention in the carnie/farmer confrontation, the carnies called farmers "rubes" and when trouble was starting
also yelled "Hey, rube" to alert other carnies to the problem. "Reuben" was thought to be a typical famer name.
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Joined: Sep 2002
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OP
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Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 261 |
I managed to find an explaination for corny earlier and yep, Faldage and Websafe - you were spot on!  (about the connection with the supposedly 'simple-minded coutry folk' thingy.) It said this particular meaning was a 20th century development. I'd always thought it had something to do with corned beef or something... Nothing on cheesy, but on thinking about the phrase 'cheesy grin', could it have something to do with over-posed photography etc? I enjoyed the suggestion of a possible Dr Seuss and nerd connection. I think this is supposed to be the origional bit it was in: "I'll sail to Ka-Troo And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep and a Proo, A Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker, too!"
I guess now only one question remains: what's a Seer, and how do you suck it?? 
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OP
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Oh, and on the subject of rhubarbs, could the term have anything to do with the word's connection to the word barbarian... somehow? It's supposed to have originated from a latin term for it that sort of got mutated when it was introduced into English.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 13,803 |
could the term have anything to do with the word's connection to the word barbarianDave Wilton goes along with the theory that the fight definition of rhubarb derives from its use as a sound in radio to simulate the hubbub of a crowd: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorr.htm#Rhubarb
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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Re: I guess now only one question remains: what's a Seer, and how do you suck it??seersucker is a wonderful word.. it was a Word of the day a long time ago, and last year (about this time?) it was a subject of a thread (below the fold) in animal safari! (the sucker part of the word, is related to sugar(and that relationship is more evident in the french/ sucre--) and strangely enough, to crocidile and shingle (both the UK shingle (a gravel edge on the shore) and the US shingle (a gravelly material for roof coverings. (hint hintgravelly) you could look it up.. i think it was a thread started by word wind.. but i am getting old and senile.. so i could be wrong about the date and who started the thread..it might even be under words with interesting etemologies... (might just be easier to pick up a dictionary, now that i think about it!  )
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Joined: Sep 2002
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OP
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Great site Faldage! > seersuckerI couldn't find it in a dictionary, but I did chase up its AWAD entry and posts on Animal Safari: http://makeashorterlink.com/?J33F24284It's certainly not a connection I'd have guessed.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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I think the use of rhubarb goes further back than radio but I have no references for that.
The vaudville expression "stuck in the corn" makes sense as most of the performers were trying to get of the rural (corn)circuit and into the supposedly more sophisticated and better paying big city clubs. But where does "being a ham" come into it? I know it pre-dates Miss Piggy.
Another related term would be "he looks pretty seedy" for scruffy or "gone to seed."
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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Oh another thought just after I clicked on continue. "Cheesy" is usually worse than corny. Possibly because of the way people react to cheese after it has been around too long???
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Related to "a face that could curdle milk"?
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