"Goak" as a bad joke/pun?
prpr
using the word "goak" after comments such as, "Hitler was so fond of
blueprints and master plans, because he was a would-be architect."
I've never heard this term before, and apparently dictionary.com and
merriam-webster's online hasn't either. Is it simply a funny way to
spell the word "joke"? I was pronouncing the g as a hard g, and I
couldn't figure out how this word got to be used as it is. Any
etymology?
John Dean
> I am reading AJP Taylor's Origins of the Second World War and he is
> using the word "goak" after comments such as, "Hitler was so fond of
> blueprints and master plans, because he was a would-be architect."
Better if you posted an actual quote from the book and extended it so the
word 'goak' was included (since I doubt Taylor wrote the sentence you cite)?
This seems to be such a quote:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18672225.html
In which case, 'goak here' is the key phrase and you shouldn't be surprised
if quoting half the relevant term fails to find you deluged in responses.
It seems that Artemus Ward was noted for 'joke' mis-spellings and Taylor
borrowed one. For example, you find in Ward's collected works at Gutenberg:
"It's troo he runs Congress & sevral other public grosserys, but then he
ain't everybody & everybody else likewise. [Notiss to bizness men of VANITY
FAIR: Extry charg fur this larst remark. It's a goak. --A.W.]"
Hilarious.
--
John Dean
Oxford
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
Yes it is a funny way to spell "joke".
It was first used by Charles Farrar Browne who wrote as "Artemus Ward":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemus_Ward
See
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18672225.html
And footnote 3 on page 333 of _Slang To-Day and Yesterday
By Eric Partridge_ at Google Books:
http://tinyurl.com/cqo2ac
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
prr
From page xxiv:
Indeed, to judge from what some historians say, Hitler produced such
blueprints continually--influenced no doubt by his ambition to be an
architect (yet another goak).
Django Cat
<stony silence>
--
Django Cat
Send him directly to gaol...
DC
--
Django Cat
</stony silence>
--
Nick
> On Mar 24, 4:08 pm, "John Dean" <john-d...@fraglineone.net> wrote:
>> prpr wrote:
>> > I am reading AJP Taylor's Origins of the Second World War and he is
>> > using the word "goak" after comments such as, "Hitler was so fond of
>> > blueprints and master plans, because he was a would-be architect."
>>
>> Better if you posted an actual quote from the book and extended it so the
>> word 'goak' was included (since I doubt Taylor wrote the sentence you cite)?
>>
>> This seems to be such a quote:http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18672225.html
>>
>> In which case, 'goak here' is the key phrase and you shouldn't be surprised
>> if quoting half the relevant term fails to find you deluged in responses.
>> It seems that Artemus Ward was noted for 'joke' mis-spellings and Taylor
>> borrowed one. For example, you find in Ward's collected works at Gutenberg:
>>
>> "It's troo he runs Congress & sevral other public grosserys, but then he
>> ain't everybody & everybody else likewise. [Notiss to bizness men of VANITY
>> FAIR: Extry charg fur this larst remark. It's a goak. --A.W.]"
>
> From page xxiv:
> Indeed, to judge from what some historians say, Hitler produced such
> blueprints continually--influenced no doubt by his ambition to be an
> architect (yet another goak).
The "yet another" in your quote suggests it follows the one in the link
John posted, where all was explained (if you know who Aremus Ward was of
course - again, John's link shows that a lot of people didn't).
--
Online waterways route planner: http://canalplan.org.uk
development version: http://canalplan.eu
Mike Lyle
> prpr wrote:
>> I am reading AJP Taylor's Origins of the Second World War and he is
>> using the word "goak" after comments such as, "Hitler was so fond of
>> blueprints and master plans, because he was a would-be architect."
>
> Better if you posted an actual quote from the book and extended it so
> the word 'goak' was included (since I doubt Taylor wrote the sentence
> you cite)?
> This seems to be such a quote:
> http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18672225.html
>
> In which case, 'goak here' is the key phrase and you shouldn't be
> surprised if quoting half the relevant term fails to find you deluged
> in responses. It seems that Artemus Ward was noted for 'joke'
Taylor explained it in the introduction or the foreword to the book in
question. Note: always read authors' forewords. AIRI, he was fed up with
people taking his little jests seriously, so he undertook to signal them
for the humour-deficient with the word "goak".
--
Mike.
Robin Bignall
wrote:
><stony silence> [at time 07.49, RB]
...
...
></stony silence> [at time 08.04, RB]
Fifteen minutes of stony silence. True bliss. More please.
--
Robin
(BrE)
Herts, England
Django Cat
<more stony silence>
--
Django Cat
</more stony silence>
--
Robin Bignall
wrote:
I fell asleep during that one and woke up today.