Re: Jim-dandy; Jim Dandy
Posted by ESC on September 16, 2001 In Reply to: A jim-dandy posted by Larry
on September 15, 2001
: Am searching for the meaning and origin of "A Jim-Dandy". Any
help greatly appreciated...and thanks.
JIM DANDY - "No particular Jim Dandy seems to be the eponym behind
the century-old term 'Jim Dandy,' which is still heard for someone
or something that is especially fine or admirable. 'The Dictionary
of Americanisms' traces the term back to January 1887. Etymologist
Gerald Cohen has cited a published sports usage of it some six months
later in a New York Giants game, indicating a possible baseball
origin. Certainly baseball helped popularize the phrase." From "Encyclopedia
of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File,
New York, 1997).
".by the turn of the century, 'Joe Dandy' (1880) was a variant
for 'Jim Dandy' (1887) referring to any remarkable or excellent
person or thing," according to "Listening to America" by Stuart
Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982). Other variants
for "jim-dandy" were "jim hickey," "Jack-Dandy" and "Joe-Dandy,"
it says in the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang,
Volume 1, H-O" by J.E. Lighter, Random House, New York, 1994.
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