stuckuppy

qms commented on the word stuckuppy

It looks like most discoverable instances of “stuckuppy” are from the pages of Punch in the Nineteenth Century. It may have been a favorite word of a staff writer charged with rendering the dialect of the lower classes. I especially like this bit of verse:

And go it we does, I assure you; which, CHARLIE, yer see, here’s the jam,

The Swells as was used to pooh-pooh us, now follers our lead like a lamb.

Your stuckuppy ‘Orspital Sawbones, your picter-card, big City sort,

Jines in with our jinks like JEMIMER, and seems to be nuts on the sport.

The ‘Arry Ballads: An Annotated Collection of the Verse Letters by Punch Editor E. J. Milliken

For a more recent instance of the word used under duress see bumblepuppy.

May 28, 2014

bilby commented on the word stuckuppy

I was reading it as stuckpuppy over on your limerick!

Which I think I'll use to describe an inexperienced politician who's got heself into a jam.

"After promising a paid parental leave scheme before the election, the new Minister for Social Services now finds he can't deliver it without sending the budget deep into deficit. There's one mighty cabinet battle looming for this little stuckpuppy."

May 29, 2014

qms commented on the word stuckuppy

But, Bilby, I think rhyming bumblepuppy with stuckpuppy (puppy with puppy) would have violated the rhymer’s code of ethics, and I would not want to get into trouble. I am nevertheless glad your misreading led to the discovery of a useful word. Another word in your comment interests me – “heself:”

Is “heself” a typo or grammarian’s whim
To merge the troublesome “her” and “him?”
I think I capisce:
For subjects it's “heesh”
And to prop up the objects a “shim?”

May 29, 2014