Date:  Tue, 8 Nov 1994 08:31:42 EST

From:  David Muschell <dmuschel[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU>

Subject: Re: 'swan' in TX, ARK



>>Has someone yet mentioned during this thread that the OED lists the verb as

>>derived from a 'prob. north. Eng. dial. I s'wan 'I shall warrant', i.e. 'I'll

>>be bound', and says it was later taken as (folk-etymologized to) a 'minicing

>>substitute for 'swear'. First citation is 1832. There's another slang verb,

>>also largely attested in 'exclamatory asseveration' (don't you just love

>>'em?), of the form 'swanny', derived by the OED from 'I shall warrant ye'.

>>Anybody ever heard that one? Prob'ly not, I swanny. (No relation to the

>>"Swanny" River, I don't guess.)

>>

>>--Larry

>

>

>Good job!  And quick on the draw, pardner...Old Stevie Foster misused the

>name of the Suwanee River in his "Old Folks at Home," calling it Swanee.

>Of course, he never even saw the river, which originally was called the

>"river of reeds" by the natives (Guasaca Esqui [source: Britannica]). The

>same source says that the present name was probably a slave version of a

>Spanish name: San Juanee (Little St. John). I'm sure our Waycross

>correspondant can add more, I swanny.

>

>

>      David



Yah!!! I still have my seventh grade English teacher's vituperous

condemnation of misspellings ringing in my ears: correspondent, David,

_not_ correspondant! Sorry, Mrs. Parrot, may you rest in peas and cues.



                David