PALOOKA

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tcward
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PALOOKA

Postby tcward » Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:24 pm

From www.etymonline.com:
palooka
"mediocre prizefighter," 1925, of unknown origin, credited to U.S. sportswriter and humorist Jack Conway. Non-boxing sense of "average person" is from Joe Palooka, hero of Ham Fisher's comic strip.
From Michael Quinion's excellent World Wide Words:
PALOOKA

[Q] From Ana Alfaro in Panama: “I have come across the term palooka as in ‘they are a couple of palookas’ and in Palookaville. Could you explain what it means?”

[A] The word has two main senses, both principally American. One refers to an unsuccessful boxer, especially one who is both large and stupid, the other to any large and stupid or clumsy person, an oaf or lout.

Many older people first came across the word as the name of the boxer in Ham Fisher’s famous comic strip. When this first appeared is open to dispute, as references variously give 1928 or 1930, the latter being more probable. The strip featured the eponymous Joe Palooka as a slow-witted and inarticulate boxer, even though “his heart was pure and his ideals high”. But Ham Fisher didn’t invent the word: it had been around for several years by the time his strip first appeared. (The earliest I can find is in the Lincoln Star, Nebraska, in March 1923: “But [Jack] Dempsey against some palooka who had been press agented into greatness and into the form of a Dempsey menace—that would pack any outdoor arena.” The casual reference shows that it was even then familiar to the writer and that he expected his readers to know it.) The boxing associations seem to have been particularly strong, to judge from the magazine The Ring, which in November 1926 glossed the word to mean “A tenth rater, a boxer without ability, a nobody” and which implied it had been known for some time.

It’s often said—following the statement by H L Mencken in the 1945 supplement to his work The American Language, which in turn echoes the belief of a writer in Esquire in September 1936—that palooka was the invention of Jack Conway, the editor of Variety magazine in the 1920s who was largely responsible for developing the magazine’s weird style; he is credited by Mencken with creating a whole group of slang terms that include pushover and baloney. Whether he actually invented palooka, or popularised it, we have no way of knowing, nor do we have any idea what it was based on.

Several of Joe Palooka’s adventures were made into films, and Palookaville came to be a slang term for a hick town full of gentle losers.

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Page created 29 January 2000; last updated 24 May 2005.
Never heard this word before, but ran across it today when pondering the submission of mediocre. 'Palooka' sounds a lot more colorful!

-Tim

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:34 pm

Then you must never have seen On The Waterfront, with Brando's extended quote:
Charlie, it was you, you remember that night down in the garden you came in my dressing room and said kid, this ain't your night... we're goin' for the price on Wilson, you remember that? This ain't your night? My night, I could've taken Wilson apart... so what happens? He gets a title shot outdoors in a ballpark, what do I get? a one way ticket to palookaville You was my brother Charlie, you should've looked out for me a little bit. You should've taken care of me a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short end money...
Charlie: I had some bets down for ya, you saw some money..
: You don't understand I could've had class, I coulda been a contender, I could've been somebody... instead of a bum which is what I am, let's face it............ It was you, Charlie.
See also this page about Joe Palooka, which I do remember reading as a kid.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

KatyBr
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Postby KatyBr » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:01 am

Well, Tim is very young. I have to keep reminding myself that he's only in his early 30's.

Katy

Apoclima
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Postby Apoclima » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:14 am

When I do hear this word, it almost always has the word "big" in front of it! And almost always spoken by women!

"Get out of my way, you, big palooka!"

As if being a palooka isn't enough, you're probably a big one too!

Apo
Last edited by Apoclima on Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

tcward
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Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Thu Jun 23, 2005 5:56 am

Unfortunately (?), I'm approaching my chronologically-late 30's as of my birthday this year... But I'm still young at heart!

-Tim


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