This is just a fun one. One of my friends at work asked me how to spell 'do si do' for a press release, and I had no idea, so I looked it up. Answer: there are various spellings. Why? This was a bit surprising. I'm sure most people reading here will associate the term with Western squaredancing. If you're like me, you kind of assume one of the callers just made it up on the spot at some point. It just sounds kind of right, doesn't it?
Well, as almost always with words, there is a little bit more to it than that. And we'll get to that. But first:
Well, as almost always with words, there is a little bit more to it than that. And we'll get to that. But first:
Wanted to make it simple for you... A do si do is a square dance figure in which two partners approach each other back to back before returning to their original spots. Now if I had to guess, I'd have thought that that "dos" sound would have had something to do with two, if it wasn't just a nonsense word. But it doesn't. The phrase 'do si do' comes from the French dos-à-dos, or "back to back". This relates it to a couple of surprising phrases. First of all, that dos connects it to "dossier", which actually relates to the whole idea of "back" in several hypothetical ways. It's a bundle of papers, sure, but the term is related to the idea of having a label on the back or being shaped like a hump on the back. Tellingly, I think, the Old French dossiere was a back strap on a horse's harness.
And what of 'vis-à-vis', which we now tend to think of as 'in regard to, or in relation to' ? Well, it's simply this term's opposite--namely, 'face to face'.
Although I don't think it's a squaredance term.
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I think it would be a fine thing for a square-dance caller to call out "Do si do!" followed by "vis-à-vis!"
ReplyDeleteDos-à-dos became Do si do! the same way ça ne fait rien became san ferry ann, it appears.
I love the face-to-face and back-to-back connection here!
ReplyDeletePeter, although I have heard the phrase san ferry ann, I had to look it up as it doesn't come up much out here. In keeping with the international flavor of word drift in this post, I came across a Swedish band with the name, singing what I'd call Appalachian style music in English. Including banjo!
ReplyDeleteKathleen, yeah, it's great isn't it? I love that a French phrase has ended up in Western dance music. I think it came west with these forms of group dancing, like contra dancing, rather than being brought back by the troops, as san ferry ann did.
ReplyDeleteNo, I meant that the process by which the sound was altered was similar, not path by which the new word reached English -- though contra dancing might have come back from Nicaragua.
ReplyDeletePaul McCartney apparently recorded a song called "San Ferry Anne" also. I've never used the expression and I doubt anyone would understand me if I did, but I've always liked it.
ReplyDeleteI knew what you meant, Peter. I was just pointing out in general that not all non-English words arrive in America via our various military expeditions, as sometimes seems to be the case.
ReplyDeleteI saw that Wings had such a song, but though I've never been a follower of the band, I have a feeling this is where the Swedish group may have gotten the idea for their name.
I probably read the term first in one of Eric Partridge's books or in the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but I'll bet it's not where the Swede's found it.
ReplyDeleteEr, Swedes found it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know; I'm sure there are some bookish Swedish musicians on the scene.
ReplyDeleteSeana, do you know this?
ReplyDeleteI must have seen it when I was a kid. That is some diabolical use of square dance calling...
ReplyDeleteI loved that cartoon when I was a kid. Among other things, it was probably my first encounter with "do-si-do," which I like as much as you do.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of childhood cartoons, I just came across this in a book by Jess Walter that I'm reading, Land of the Blind":
ReplyDeleteWe planted ourselves in front of the TV with zealous punctuality, and yet we never so much as smiled at the crap that played before us: Underdog and Dick Tracy and the Go Go Gophers and Mr. Peabody and Klondike Cat ("Savoir Faire has stolen my cheeses!). The point of cartoons is not enjoyment. Check the face of any kid planted in front of the tube. It's not fun. It's a business. They don't like cartoons anymore than we like work; it's what they do."
Apparently you have a different point of view, Peter. I'm not sure that I agree with him either, but I do remember watching some cartoons I didn't really like, simply because they were on.
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ReplyDeleteSome, including ones that Jess Walter cites, were garbage in front of which I would park myself because I was there. But the narrator of the Walter passage is plainly a disturbed character. Either that, or Walter engages in cheap effort at shock.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator is a disturbed individual, but I'm not sure he isn't channeling the author's own feeling about this.
ReplyDeleteWalter is one of my favorites, and though this is an early effort, I'm feeling very drawn in by it.
I've heard good things about Walter, but anyone who thinks kids didn't enjoy Warner Bros. cartoons is disturned or tendentions.
ReplyDeleteWell, to be absolutely honest, I wasn't crazy about a lot of the Warner Brother's cartoons myself. But then, slapstick was never really my thing. I think I liked Popeye, Felix the Cat and the Hanna Barbera cartoons a lot more. I can appreciate the cleverness of this do si do one a lot more now than I did at the time.
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ReplyDeleteI watched the Hanna Barbera cartoons but thought them less good even then. Warner Brothers was king for me, and not just for the slapstick humor, but also for the drawing, the clever writing, and, not least, the music, which exposed me to much better music than later generations got with their cartoons.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that one of my favorite costumes ever for Halloween was a store bought Huckleberry Hound one. The music on Warner Brothers was great, but it had the reverse effect of making all this great classical music sound cartoonish to me. I looked to see what all else Hanna Barbera did and found a lot of my favorites--Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, Quickdraw McGraw, the Flintstones.
ReplyDeleteI'm not arguing for their superiority, just talking about personal preference. Although I really didn't like Tom and Jerry.
I heard that one of the three tenors, either Domingo or Carerras, was on a talk show, maybe Charlie Rose's and, when the host mentioned Wagner, the singer started singing ”Kill the Wabbit, Kill the WABBIT!” from “What’s Opera, Doc?”
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