Wednesday, July 20, 2011

An old word, "boogety."

If a neologism is a new word usage, then what is an old word usage? A paleologism? Anyway, Baba Jamal used a "word" on Tuesday night at the Thistle that I haven't heard since I was a child on my granny's knee: "boogety." (I guess that's how you'd spell it. I can't find it in my bfd.) Baba used it, I think, in the "Trouble" story about the alligators running out of the fire. He said something like, "They went boogety right outta there!" My granny would bounce me on her knees, reciting the old poem, "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross...etc." Then, when she got to the end, she would say "boogety, boogety, boogety..." and bounce me even faster. As she and Baba both used it, it implies "fast motion." The closest word I can find is "boogie," used in the sense of, "When I saw the police coming, I boogied out of there." (It's also used, of course, to mean a type of music or dance. The etymology is a little unclear, maybe West African English (Sierra Leone?) bogi to dance, possibly akin to Hausa, buga, to beat drums.)

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