Comments on: Hillary Clinton Will Announce Withdraw From Race on Saturday, Will Back Obama

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:38:45 +0000

I assure you, I know exactly where my Nukes are. Rumors to the contrary are utterly false.(Or is that Nikes…)

By: JanieBelle

JanieBelle — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:36:44 +0000

*shrugs*If the Air Force can misplace nukes…

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:34:05 +0000

It was more a matter of where the heck it was on the web. I have access via the U.I got it, and confirm some of what is above. The French and Asian uses are not in the OED, nor is the Congolese use, so these are from my memory for now (having looked it up back when I found out that I was supposed to call our cook “boy” or “boi” in Zaire … ).But in the OED, “boy” referring to a black slave/servant actually goes to the mid 17th century in the US but does not seem to acccur a lot until the early 19th century in S. Africa and mid 19th century in the US.Here’s the write up on “oh boy!” or “oh, boy!” in full:

1917 Amer. Mag. Mar. 13/1 ï¿½I told that dame I was Kid Hanlon.ï¿½..ï¿½Oh, boy!ï¿½ I yells. 1927 Punch 7 Sept. 263 Oh, boy, I feel good! 1930 D. H. LAWRENCE Nettles 17 And they blushed, they giggled, they sniggered, they leered..and said: Oh boy!..that’s pretty hot! 1934 M. HODGE Wind & Rain I. i. 18 Boy! They don’t wear a damned thing! 1942 L. D. RICH We took to Woods (1944) ii. 34 Maine guides have a legend of quaintness to uphold, and boy! do they uphold it. 1958 ï¿½N. SHUTEï¿½ Rainbow & Rose i. 2, I slithered in over the fence and put her [sc. the aeroplane] down and boy! was I glad to be on the ground!

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:27:35 +0000

Isn’t the OED pretty hard to misplace?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:22:31 +0000

This is a tricky one. “Boie” or “boi” is a servent, slave, or knave in old medieval French and the same word applies to young men in general in contemporary english. In the Congo, “boi” is usually a young woman who is a cook or helper, if I recall correctly. I never knew if that was English, French, KiSwahili, or something else, but it always sounded bad to me and I never used the word. “Boy/Boi” is also used in Asia meaning any servant, I think, of any age, in various languages. A Boy is also a naval/military servent.So, the pejorative “boy” in the African American US sense may be not just less than a man as in younger than a man (because, after all, in a patriarchical society, “boys” are very much valued….) but rather there may be another connection.Boy was used to refer to soldiers starting at some point, and I think this may be connected to the origin of “oh boy” … Oh Boy comes from the WW I era, as an expression for “Holy Crap” or “Wow” I’m pretty sure.I’ve got an OED laying around here somewhere….

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:04:48 +0000

Ding, ding, ding. Ana wins.Actually, it’s more like “Hoo boy!” if I say it out loud, but that betrays that I lived in the south for a few formative years.Joel, you have my sympathy. It’s the unaware gaffes that always smart the most, isn’t it?

By: Ana

Ana — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:39:30 +0000

Joel -I think that Stephanie’s usage of the word ‘boy’ was as an abbreviated “oh boy!”, like “oh my!”, and not like “Boy, you’d better get out to them fields”, or whatever. I’m not sure of the derivation of that exclamation, though…I’m reminded of a comment by Elizabeth about the usage of ‘girl’ and find it interesting that while some women have certainly embraced the term as a positive (including Clinton), especially since the whole “girl-power” movement, it remains a touchy subject with regard to who is using it and for what purpose. All too often, it still retains the diminutive connotation that troubles us about ‘boy’, which is to say ‘less than a man’. I don’t know that there will ever be the type of appropriation in the masculine that we’ve see with the feminine. Men can simply insist on being men. Women, it seems (since they can’t spend all day every day everywhere arguing the matter) have chosen to not take offense, and to redefine as needed (kinda like with the N-word…kinda). Girls rock!I know I referred to Obama as the “golden boy” somewhere here and felt a little iffy about it…golden boy:nouna man who is unusually successful at an early age

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:28:43 +0000

Boy, that man can talkThis reminded me of something that happened in the mid-seventies when I was in basic training. I used the colloquialism “boy” in the presence of a black man and not being from the south where I assume it means something different, I didn’t understand the implications for this other soldier, I was 17 and pretty ignorant about the world. I tried to explain that where I am from, it means something quite different. I’ve rarely used that term since.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:29:35 +0000

Joel, I’d be perfectly happy to have her as VP if that’s what she wants, although I think she’d shine better elsewhere. And while many of Obama’s supporters are still angry, I think he’s perfectly capable of telling them Clinton as VP is an excellent thing and being believed. He started the process Tuesday night. Boy, that man can talk.

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:53:28 +0000

It would be a bad move for Hillary to accept the VP spot on Obama’s ticket. It seems to me Obama and his supporters don’t want her on the ticket and when that is the case, it is better to walk away.