Oct 13, 2009

What's in a Name, Sparky

The 1920s comic strip, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, strip gave us the nickname "Sparky," from the name of Barney's horse, Sparkplug.


Billy DeBeck wrote the strip about a community of backwoods hillbillies and moonshiners. In a 1923 strip Barney tells someone to, "Get that stupid look offa your pan. You gimme the heeby jeebys!" It meant, 'a feeling of discomfort'.


Other phrases coined by DeBeck: 'horsefeathers', 'hotsie-totsie', and 'googly-eyed' after Barney Google, who had huge, bulbous eyes.

Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was nicknamed Sparky - and that ain't no horsefeathers.

1 comment:

  1. These are wonderful color prints of the comic. And how about that nickname Sparky? I remember hearing that Charles Schulz was called that but never realized the root of the nickname.

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