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

[Charles Early]

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" is the title of a poem by Rudyard Kipling 
(http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1791.html) about the defeat of a British 
army by Sudanese warriors of the Mahdi's army 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_Wuzzy):

  "So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
          You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man"

"Warm fuzzies" is a term from Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis) referring to positive 
human interactions ("strokes").  It appears in his book _Games People Play_ 
(1964).

At 07:35 AM 12/8/2006, 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/

Charles Early
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