Flibbertigibbet
Hi, I'm deeply fascinated with reduplicated words such as flip-flop, mish-mash, hippety-hop, etc. After googling for them, I came across a huge list on this site: www.trussel.com/ flipflop.htm
But I was stumped as to the meaning of these, can you please help out:
* tush-tush - I know what tush means btw, :)
* flibberti-gibberty
* hufty-magufty
* kitchy-koo - same as cootchie-coo?
* humdudgeon
* whoop-de-doo - know the dic. meaning but I've heard it being used as an interjection..but I don't know in what way.
* Huff-SnuffMore Later..
Flibbertygibbet -- A silly, fluttering, restless young woman. From "Southern Stuff: Down-home Talk and Bodacious Lore from Deep in the Heart of Dixie" by Mildred Jordan Brooks (Avon Books, New York, 1992).
Funny, I thought William Shakespeare got there first: I didn't know he was an habituee of Dixie, silly me.
From King Lear :
Edgar: This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Swithold footed thrice the old;
He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,
And her troth plight,
And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!
[I have heard it used of a flighty woman though.]