Is it whacko or wacko?

[Eddie Powalski]

On another newsgroup, we're discussing newgroup w(h)ackos.

What is the proper spelling of this slang word anyway?

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Saturday, August 3, 2013 2:11:48 PM UTC-4, Eddie Powalski wrote:
> On another newsgroup, we're discussing newgroup w(h)ackos.
>
>
>
> What is the proper spelling of this slang word anyway?

Depends on how it was pronounced before the [W ~ w] merger of the
mid 20th century.

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

Both.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/wacko?q=wacko

wacko
(also whacko)
informal, chiefly North American

adjective
mad; insane:
"his willingness to pursue every wacko idea that enters his mind"

noun (plural wackos)
a crazy person.

Origin:
1970s: from wacky + -o

http://www.yourdictionary.com/whacko

whacko

adjective, noun pl. whackos

Slang wacko

Webster's New World College Dictionary

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[Don Phillipson]

"Peter Duncanson [BrE]" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
news:cluqv8t785rduijfn...@4ax.com...

> http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/wacko?q=wacko
>
> wacko
> (also whacko)
> informal, chiefly North American
>
> adjective
> mad; insane:
> "his willingness to pursue every wacko idea that enters his mind"
>
> noun (plural wackos)
> a crazy person.
>
> Origin:
> 1970s: from wacky + -o

This date is obviously wrong (and so seems the American reference.)
BBC radio comedian Jimmy Edwards's first TV series was called
Whack-O! in 1956, when this was well known as an expression
of enthusiasm or approval, characteristic of either schoolboys
or young serviceman. (Edwards had been an RAF pilot.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Robert Bannister]

And not forgetting the Waco Siege.

--
Robert Bannister

[Eddie Powalski]

On Sat, 03 Aug 2013 13:27:08 -0700, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> Depends on how it was pronounced before the [W ~ w] merger of the
> mid 20th century.

There was a W/w merger?

Googling, I can't find anything about it.

Is it described here?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English

[Eddie Powalski]

On Sun, 04 Aug 2013 08:29:48 +0800, Robert Bannister wrote:

> And not forgetting the Waco Siege.

That's unrelated.

[Peter T. Daniels]

It's the fourth item under "After American-British split":

"Reduction of /hw/ to /w/ results in the wine–whine merger in most
varieties of English English; also, regionally, in American English."

(There seems to be a link within that sentence.)

Just about the only English-speakers who still distinguish <wh> from <w>
are in Scotland and Upstate New York.

[Peter T. Daniels]

(different vowel)

[Peter Moylan]

I suspect that the "whack-o the diddlo" that Don mentioned is also
unrelated. It's a cry of enthusiasm, like Yahoo. The other wacko means
crazy or stupid, like the other kind of yahoo.

--
Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org
For an e-mail address, see my web page.

[Iain Archer]

Don Phillipson wrote on Sat, 3 Aug 2013 at 19:02:53 GMT

But that also traded on his role as a "cane-swishing headmaster"
(Wiki.),
where a whacking was, as per Billy Bunter, a beating; as well as being a
long-standing superlative as in "whacking big".
--
Iain Archer

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

Isn't that a different sense?

[CDB]

On 04/08/2013 12:36 AM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> Eddie Powalski wrote:
>> Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>>> Depends on how it was pronounced before the [W ~ w] merger of the

>>> mid 20th century.

>> There was a W/w merger?

>> Googling, I can't find anything about it.

>> Is it described here?

>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English

> It's the fourth item under "After American-British split":

> "Reduction of /hw/ to /w/ results in the wine–whine merger in most
> varieties of English English; also, regionally, in American English."

> (There seems to be a link within that sentence.)

> Just about the only English-speakers who still distinguish <wh> from <w>
> are in Scotland and Upstate New York.

Around here too (Ottawa - Eastern Ontario). Upstate New Yorkers are our
close neighbours, and seem more sensible to us than most Americans. We
pwn several of their PBS stations.

Not sure about [W] in the rest of Canada.

[CDB]

On 04/08/2013 6:41 AM, Peter Moylan wrote:

> Eddie Powalski wrote:
>> Robert Bannister wrote:

>>> And not forgetting the Waco Siege.
>>
>> That's unrelated.

> I suspect that the "whack-o the diddlo" that Don mentioned is also
> unrelated. It's a cry of enthusiasm, like Yahoo. The other wacko means
> crazy or stupid, like the other kind of yahoo.

I have always supposed that "w(h)acky" and related words are variants of
"whacked": beaten into stupidity, stunned by a blow.

[Peter Percival]

Eddie Powalski wrote:
> On another newsgroup, we're discussing newgroup w(h)ackos.
>
> What is the proper spelling of this slang word anyway?

According to Partridge, whacko! is Australian for splendid! or good!
While wacko is a 'var. of--and inferior to--whacko!'

[Peter T. Daniels]

Is there any special contemporary connection between Scotland and Nova
Scotia?

I once saw a map of "wh," and it didn't stretch across New England to the
Atlantic Provinces. I also don't recall that it got as far north as Ottawa
-- perhaps it's coming back! (Spelling-pronunciation and all that.)

[Mike L]

Ireland, too. The difference in this respect between Irish and some
English speakers was already being noticed in the 19th C.

--
Mike.

[Mike L]

"Our junior corp'ral, he is no fool:
He's really got a whacking great tool.
All right for tunnels
And Queen Mary's funnels,
And just right for [xxx]."

--
Mike.

[Mike L]

You mean like "punchy"? Plausible.

--
Mike.

[Odysseus]

In article <ktlvii$knh$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,

CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 04/08/2013 12:36 AM, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

<snip>

>
> > Just about the only English-speakers who still distinguish <wh> from <w>
> > are in Scotland and Upstate New York.
>
> Around here too (Ottawa - Eastern Ontario). Upstate New Yorkers are our
> close neighbours, and seem more sensible to us than most Americans. We
> pwn several of their PBS stations.
>
> Not sure about [W] in the rest of Canada.

I have it, but my first eight years were spent in Ottawa, and my
aspiration is probably not always strong enough to be audible. I don't
hear it often here out west.

--
Odysseus

[R H Draney]

Peter Moylan filted:

>
>On 04/08/13 12:57, Eddie Powalski wrote:
>> On Sun, 04 Aug 2013 08:29:48 +0800, Robert Bannister wrote:
>>
>>> And not forgetting the Waco Siege.
>>
>> That's unrelated.
>>
>I suspect that the "whack-o the diddlo" that Don mentioned is also
>unrelated. It's a cry of enthusiasm, like Yahoo. The other wacko means
>crazy or stupid, like the other kind of yahoo.

What about the one in "nick-nack, paddy-whack, give the dog a bone"?...for that
matter, just what *was* This Old Man doing when he played nick-nack on all those
things?...r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Robert Bannister]

But don't some Irish and some Scots pronounce it "kw" (and some authors
spell it qw)?

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

I think not. As Iain said, it was a pun on the RAF "Whacko" (Jolly Good)
and "Whack" as in the sound of a cane.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

There were some whackoes involved.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

Don't spoil jokes with facts.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

On 4/08/13 6:41 PM, Peter Moylan wrote:
> On 04/08/13 12:57, Eddie Powalski wrote:
>> On Sun, 04 Aug 2013 08:29:48 +0800, Robert Bannister wrote:
>>
>>> And not forgetting the Waco Siege.
>>
>> That's unrelated.
>>
> I suspect that the "whack-o the diddlo" that Don mentioned is also
> unrelated. It's a cry of enthusiasm, like Yahoo. The other wacko means
> crazy or stupid, like the other kind of yahoo.

I thought that meaning was primarily American and fairly recent in
Australia. (By 'recent', I mean the last half century or so).
--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

As little children, we thought it sounded vaguely rude, but somehow it
lay beyond the limits of our disgusting imaginations.
--
Robert Bannister

[CDB]

On 04/08/2013 6:30 PM, Mike L wrote:

> CDB <belle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Peter Moylan wrote:
>>> Eddie Powalski wrote:
>>>> Robert Bannister wrote:

>>>>> And not forgetting the Waco Siege.
>>>>
>>>> That's unrelated.

>>> I suspect that the "whack-o the diddlo" that Don mentioned is also
>>> unrelated. It's a cry of enthusiasm, like Yahoo. The other wacko means
>>> crazy or stupid, like the other kind of yahoo.

>> I have always supposed that "w(h)acky" and related words are variants of
>> "whacked": beaten into stupidity, stunned by a blow.

> You mean like "punchy"? Plausible.

"Stunned" was used attributively at my high school, too.

I had to google for the end of your poem, and found that another version
has "But no good for [redacted]"; reason not given.

[Harvey]

Odysseus <odysseu...@yahoo-dot.ca> Wrote in message:

Same here. I was raised in Ottawa (from age 4 to 22) , and while I
don't know if it's audible, I certainly hear the difference in my
mind's ear.

--
Cheers, Harvey



----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://www.piaohong.tk/newsgroup

[Mike L]

It's very strange. I think it must be a conflation of an obscene
public-school song with a ditto soldier's one. The "no good"
instrument belongs to "Our sergeant-major, he's such a fool: He's only
got a teeny-weeny tool". "Tool" rhymes with "school", and there's a
chanted refrain that goes, IIRC,

"[Presto] Up school! Up school! Up school!
[Rallentando emphatico] Right - up - school!"

--
Mike.

[Mike L]

Ours too. But OED says it's just rhythmic tapping:
< 3. An alternation of knacking sounds; an instrument that produces
such, as the bones.
1650 H. More Second Lash Alazonomastix (1655) 144 Some idle boy
playing on a pair of Knick-knacks.
1708 Brit. Apollo No. 56. 3/1 Death-Watches perplex, With repeated
knick-knacks.>

Death-watch beetles are the adults of a kind of big woodworm which,
when ready for mating, make a characteristic clicking sound generally
audible only in the silence of night.

--
Mike.

[Robert Bannister]

The part that used to puzzle me was whether a girls school would have a
sergeant-major. My (boys) school did. He worked as a kind of doorkeeper
and ran the Combined Cadet Corps stores, but I thought Roedean was
different.

--
Robert Bannister

[Robert Bannister]

Thank you, but how very disappointing.

--
Robert Bannister

[Mike L]

Ah. We had one of those Sa-majors, too. The Roedean bit is presumably
wishful thinking. (See also "bananas, reason the rest of us get
curved".)

--
Mike.

[John Dunlop]

Robert Bannister:

> But don't some Irish and some Scots pronounce it "kw" (and some authors
> spell it qw)?

Maybe. Certainly in the pronunciation of some place names. Some say
"Balquidder" with [kw], others with [ʍ] (typed on a wherty keyboard).

"Wacko/whacko" is too foreign a word to comment on, except in Michael
Jackson's nickname, where it seems to be "Wacko" in writing and speech.

--
John