Date:    Fri, 20 Feb 1998 15:30:04 +0000
<br>From:    Jim Rader  jrader[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]M-W.COM 
<br>Subject: Re: canoodle [long]
<br>
<br>Ms. Lubell--
<br>
<br>Seeing that you sent a query about the etymology of _canoodle_ both
<br>to this office (left on an editor's voicemail) and the list, I will
<br>reply to both at the same time.  Sorry if this is too late for your
<br>deadlines.
<br>
<br>An article by B.J. Whiting that appeared in _American Speech_ in 1945
<br>seems to have been overlooked in the recent discussion of this word.
<br>Whiting pointed out that the acceptance of _canoodle_ as an
<br>Americanism in the standard dictionaries was questionable.  The
<br>English journalist George Augustus Sala, in the first cite for the
<br>word (spelled _conoodle_) in 1859, ascribed it "to our American
<br>cousins," though Sala had never visited the U.S. at that time and had
<br>no direct acquaintance with American English.  None of the early
<br>evidence for the word or its derivatives in the OED is demonstrably
<br>American.  Bret Harte used the word in an 1897 story, though Harte
<br>had not resided in the U.S. since 1878.
<br>
<br>Merriam files have only scattered evidence for the word before the
<br>1970's, and nothing to suggest it is an Americanism.  A cite from the
<br>1909 supplement to the _Century Dictionary_ looks British.  The word
<br>was used in the October, 1925 issue of _The American Mercury_, but
<br>apparently in the sense "sing off-key" ("...and the sweet songs of John
<br>McClure and Sara Teasdale, and the harsh canoodling of the Greenwich
<br>Villagers"); this usage is a hapax as far as I can tell.  _Notes &
<br>Queries_ for Sept. 3, 1927, recorded it as "Nottingham dialect" for
<br>"to cuddle."  The word was current in Australia in 1928, to judge
<br>from a cite from the _New South Wales Bulletin_ for Sept. 26 ("This
<br>fuss over the possibility of the Alsatian dog canoodling with lady
<br>dingoes annoys me.  There is no wolf strain in the breed, as is
<br>commonly supposed.")  The next cite is from the Aug. 11, 1945 issue
<br>of the AMA _Journal_  ("A canoe is not built for canoodling and
<br>should only be taken when you want to get somewhere"); then from _The
<br>World, the Flesh, and Father Smith_ (1945) by the British novelist
<br>Bruce Marshall (1899-1987) ("...the best way of dealing with lovers
<br>when found canoodling in church doors"); then from the Apr. 30, 1949
<br>_Saturday Review_ ("Plenty of local color, ample action, drinking,
<br>and canoodling"); then from the novel _Beat the Devil_ (1953) by the
<br>British writer Claud Cockburn (1904-81), using the pseudonym James
<br>Helvick ("...she...stretched out her hand to touch Dannreuther's arm.
<br>('There was more bloody canoodling,' reported the major.)". Finally,
<br>there are "two lovebirds canoodling in a cage" in _Animal Psychology_
<br>(1961) by the British veterinarian R.H. Smythe.
<br>
<br>A note in our etymology file by Harold Bender, etymologist for W34,
<br>comes to the conclusion that the word is not an Americanism, from the
<br>occurrence of a derivative in the novel _A Tale of Two Villages_:  "I
<br>have found in Ethel Sidgwick's "A Tale of Two Villages," N.Y. and
<br>London, 1931, p. 214:  'She was not a bad sort, old Clo...better than
<br>Cutler's one, the canoodly sister.'  I should say, from the story,
<br>that the word means here 'flirtatious, sentimental, soft.'  The story
<br>is written by an Englishwoman and laid in rural England, with careful
<br>local color and vocabulary."
<br>
<br>B.J. Whiting considered the word "at least obsolescent" in 1945,
<br>though in a 1947 note in _American Speech_ he pointed out a couple
<br>recent American uses of the word, one in a variant form _kidoodling_.
<br>
<br>The word reappears strongly in the 1970's, about evenly divided
<br>between British and American publications in our cites, and has been fairly
<br>current ever since.  It attracted the attention of Thomas Middleton,
<br>who wrote about words in those years for _Saturday Review_.  Our
<br>files only contain extracts of what Middleton said about _canoodle_
<br>(I have not yet looked up the actual articles).  He quotes
<br>extensively from a letter from W.E. Umbach, the etymologist for
<br>Webster's New World:
<br>
<br>-After having identified the word as definitely an Americanism, dated
<br>-in one of Mencken's works in the early 1850s and located by him as an
<br>-expression common in the Missouri-Mississippi basin, I began to
<br>-consider the likelihood of Mencken's explanation--that it is an
<br>-American extravagant invention created on the frontier.  It occurred
<br>-to me that I might consider the possibility of borrowing from one of
<br>-the languages which have contributed to the American vocabulary...But
<br>-I referred to the old _Muret-Sanders Encyclopedic Dictionary_ and
<br>-found, to my delight, _knudeln_, defined as 'to cuddle.'....It is
<br>-almost impossible to escape the conclusion that it was one of the
<br>-German words brought by German immigrants who came to the
<br>-Missouri-Mississippi basin in the years following the Revolution of
<br>-1848....
<br>
<br>Unfortunately, Umbach does not say where Mencken wrote this.  It's
<br>not in _The American Language_, where Mencken says nothing about the
<br>date or locale of the word.  In the light of the citational evidence
<br>set out above, I am very dubious about _canoodle_ as an Americanism.
<br>If it is not an Americanism, the _knudeln_ etymology is extremely
<br>weak, despite the surface correspondence in sound and sense.
<br>
<br>W3 based its etymology on the entry in Wright's _English Dialect
<br>Dictionary_, which has the following under _canoodle_:
<br>
<br>-CANOODLE, sb. Som[erset].  A donkey; also applied to persons.  w.Som.
<br>-N & Q. (1879) 5th S. xi. 197.  e.Som. Used also fig. of one who makes
<br>-love foolishly or 'spooneys' [sic--JLR] (G.S. [George Sweetman,
<br>-Wright's east Somerset correspondent--JLR])  [Not known to our
<br>-correspondents in w.Som.]
<br>
<br>Interestingly, the _Survey of English Dialects: the Dictionary and
<br>Grammar_, based on Orton's survey, has an entry _canuter_ for
<br>"donkey" from Devonshire.  This is surely in the same family as
<br>_canoodle_ from Somersetshire, though the SED dictionary editors
<br>append the peculiar note:  "SBM headword queried as _cornutor_, but
<br>more probably formed on Canute, English king with reputation for
<br>obstinacy."  Basing the form of a lemma on off-the-cuff etymologizing
<br>doesn't seem like a good idea....
<br>
<br>The association of donkeys with foolishness and lovesickness must be
<br>the basis for connecting the two senses, though it seems rather
<br>tenuous.  A similar relation may hold between _spoon_ "simpleton",
<br>_spoony_ "sentimentally foolish" and _spoon_ "to caress, pet"--maybe.
<br>All in all, though, the OED and RHHDAS are probably wise to stick
<br>with "origin unknown" for _canoodle_.
<br>