Meet the Huggetts - 'lumme'!
Nick
Warner) kept saying,
'Lummy',
which, of course, is, as you would expect and interjection of
surprise.
My Penguin Dictionary describes 'lummy' or 'lumme' as 'slang', but the
Concise OED says it's 'vulgar' and derived from 'Lord love me'!
My mum was always saying,
'Lummy duck',
which, if that's Cockney rhyming slang, could be blasphemous - YIKES!
Nick from England
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<paci...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>In Meet the Huggetts, a BBC 7 radio show from 1959, Mr. Huggett (Jack
>Warner) kept saying,
>
>'Lummy',
>
>which, of course, is, as you would expect and interjection of
>surprise.
>
>My Penguin Dictionary describes 'lummy' or 'lumme' as 'slang', but the
>Concise OED says it's 'vulgar' and derived from 'Lord love me'!
>
The online OED gives that derivation and some quotes but does not
classify it as slang, vulgar or anything else.
>My mum was always saying,
>
>'Lummy duck',
>
That might be a shortened version of "Lord love a duck":
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lor1.htm
Michael Quinion discusses possible origins and concludes:
Perhaps the whole point about it is that it doesn�t make sense?
>which, if that's Cockney rhyming slang, could be blasphemous - YIKES!
>
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)
contrex
wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:05:39 -0800 (PST), Nick
>
> >In Meet the Huggetts, a BBC 7 radio show from 1959, Mr. Huggett (Jack
> >Warner) kept saying,
>
> >'Lummy',
>
> >which, of course, is, as you would expect and interjection of
> >surprise.
My mum was always saying "Lawks!" but I was born in 1840, so there you
go... (via ouija board)
Nick
wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:05:39 -0800 (PST), Nick
>
> >In Meet the Huggetts, a BBC 7 radio show from 1959, Mr. Huggett (Jack
> >Warner) kept saying,
>
> >'Lummy',
>
> >which, of course, is, as you would expect and interjection of
> >surprise.
>
> >My Penguin Dictionary describes 'lummy' or 'lumme' as 'slang', but the
> >Concise OED says it's 'vulgar' and derived from 'Lord love me'!
>
> The online OED gives that derivation and some quotes but does not
> classify it as slang, vulgar or anything else.
>
> >My mum was always saying,
>
> >'Lummy duck',
>
> That might be a shortened version of "Lord love a duck":http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-lor1.htm
>
By George, I think you're right, Peter! :-)
In Lord Love a Duck (1966), Roddy McDowell and Tuesday Weld vie with
each other throwing colours (verbally) amid increasing paroxysms of
laughter until McDowell reaches a shattering climax with...
'Periwinkle pusyycat'!
It was a supporting feature I saw as a teenager - a George Axelrod
novel, I notice - probably over my head at that age, but my pal, Nige,
and I and the rest of the audience roared with laughter at that scene!
http://209.85.122.85/10701/5/0/p1008617/dry_gulch_pete.wav
Nick alias Dry Gulch Pete