COMPUTER GEEK AND BARISTAS
I wonder who invented "ew"? People didn't say "ew" thirty years ago. Somebody had to be the very first person to do it. Talk about unsung heroes. They're probably laboring in obscurity somewhere, all bitter and whatnot for not getting the recognition they so richly deserved. I'd like to find them and ask them how they did it. Did it just come to them spontaneously, or did they have sheets of notebook paper with hundreds of odd sounds written on them, most of them crossed out? This is just one of the many things I wonder, so you don't have to.
Sparky Donatello
9 Comments
Reader Comments (9)
"People didn't say "ew" thirty years ago"
Um, yes, yes we did.
Donna! Why do you want to ruin my story?
Man this must be serendipity. I was just having a conversation about the current colloquial usage of "dick" How did the term go from being a synonym of Richard to a synonym for "penis".
This is no half witted joke. I seriously had a 5 minutes conversation in front of Best Buy.
Now can we have 5 minutes of our life back?
And what did you conclude?
One gentleman conclude that Spiro Agnew created the term after arguing with Richard "Dick" Nixon.
No, goes back further. Probably a quick check in your 24 foot Oxford English Dictionary wd tell. Or you can use the version that comes with a magnifying glass. Except their examples are usually from print sources, and this is very widespread as a vocal use, not so much in print ..
My Collins six incher isn't up to much tbh, only about 1 in 3 words I don't know is there. I'll have to look in the pound shop for one of those 24footers c/w magnifying glass and torch.
I do remember this word being applied to a Richard at the Poetry Society of Virginia annual meeting at the Wren Building at William and Mary many years ago by a man with whom I was invited to coffee.
I could never go out with my coffee companion after that, as he certainly meant it as caustic.