Talk:loosey-goosey
Possible Canadian origins?
editI haven't looked into it closely enough to say so with confidence, but it seems like this term may have emerged among Canadian speakers? The earliest quote I could find was a 1946 column in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. It appears in The Toronto Star as early as 1955. The earliest mention in the NYT (the only US newspaper I have the ability to search the archives of) is in 1972, by which time the term has appeared a dozen times already between the Globe and the Star. The earliest definitive occurrence indexed by Google Books is in a 1955 article in the Canadian magazine Maclean's, though it's as part of a quote from an American baseball player (Dusty Rhodes (outfielder)). There's also apparently a match in the magazine Canadian Saturday Night, but Gbooks offers no preview there.
Just putting the possibility out there in case anyone cares to dig in further. Colin M (talk) 22:16, 11 March 2021 (UTC)
Also, another thread that might be worth pulling on re: origins: there is apparently a story (19th c. or earlier) involving a character named "Goosey-Loosey" (with friends such as "Turkey-Lurkey"). Colin M (talk) 22:26, 11 March 2021 (UTC)