[PW] Re: Fuzzy wuzzy - a lovely, warm emotion

[Nichael Cramer]

I can offer no suggestion as to which was the earlier usage,
but I was first exposed to the phrase in the nursery rhyme
from my --midwestern-US-- childhood (which certainly
predated "Sesame Street"):

   Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
   Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
   Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?

(Much more fun when read aloud, the final "was he" being
pronounced as "wuzzy", of course.)

N

Peter Zilahy Ingerman, PhD wrote:
>May be related ... the phrase "warm fuzzy" was/is common in
>Transactional Analysis circles (pun unintended), which date to Eric
>Berne and is about the correct time frame.
>
>And to  "add a similar sounding word like wuzzy as a kind of
>intensifier" is reduplication, at least sometimes.
>
>Peter Ingerman
>
>Russell Hamilton wrote:
>
> >Hello W0mbats,
> >
> >I used the descriptor fuzzy wuzzies today in a blog comment, and only
> >afterwards thought to check its political correct-ness. The standard
> >Australian dictionary - the Macquarie - says it's derogatory. The Oxford
> >just says it's slang. To me, hearing stories about 'fuzzy wuzzy angels' when
> >I was at school, it was always an affectionate term for Melanesians. But
> >maybe it's suffered the same fate as golliwogs.
> >
> >What I want to ask w0mbats is: does anyone remember (in the 70's?) when
> >fuzzy wuzzy became a popular way to describe a nice warm, emotional state -
> >I can remember my little nieces asking "Give me a fuzzy wuzzy" which meant a
> >big hug - I always assumed this came from Sesame Street or some program they
> >watched. I can find people on the 'net using fuzzy wuzzy in this sense - but
> >I don't have any dictionary that describes this usage.
> >
> >BTW what is it called when people take a word like fuzzy and then add a
> >similar sounding word like wuzzy as a kind of intensifier?
> >
> >Regards,
> >Russell Hamilton
> >Perth, Western Australia
> >_______________________________________________
> >Project Wombat
> >list at project-wombat.org
> >http://www.project-wombat.org/
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --------------------------------
> >Text inserted by Platinum 2007:
> >
> > This message has NOT been classified as spam. If it is 
> unsolicited mail (spam), click on the following link to reclassify 
> it: http://127.0.0.1:6083/Panda?ID=pav_9237&SPAM=true
> >------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> --------------------------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>_______________________________________________
>Project Wombat
>list at project-wombat.org
>http://www.project-wombat.org/

--
Nichael Cramer
Guilford VT
nichael at sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~nichael/