Specially for Kalleh.
Top 40 Chicago words.

[Hat-tip to Wordorigins]

Ah, yes. I had seen the original publication of it and had meant to post it. I had actually wondered about the reliability of some of them, such as "cloud nine." Others, I was downright surprised about, such as "pipedream" or "dagnabbit" (I thought the latter was a Disney word).

Okay, I randomly selected a few of these and checked them with the OED, and here is what I've found:

1) Egghead: it says:

quote:

egghead A derogatory term for an intellectual. A 1918 letter from Carl Sandburg indicates that Chicago newspapermen used “egghead” to refer to highbrow editorial writers out of touch with the common man. In the 1950s, the word surged in popularity when the Chicagoan Adlai Stevenson was branded with the term in his unsuccessful presidential campaigns.

OED says does cite Sandburg, but also this:

quote:

1907 O. JOHNSON in Sat. Even. Post 16 Nov. 9/1 His genius lived in the nicknames of the Egghead,..Morning Glory, [etc.].

2) Cafeteria - They said it originated at the Chicago World's Fair, which was in 1893. While the OED does mention Chicago, it has it originating in 1839:

quote:

1839 J. L. STEPHENS Trav. Russian & Turkish Emp. I. 157 Every third shop, almost, being a cafteria [sic] where a parcel of huge turbanded fellows were at their daily labours of smoking pipes and drinking coffee.

3)Hootchy Kootchy - They cite it from the Chicago World's Fair and say it was first in print here in an 1898 column by Finley Peter Dunne. The OED cites that, but this is first:

quote:

[1890 B. HALL Turnover Club vii. 75, I have been told that one night ‘Hoochy-Coochy’ Rice, the minstrel man{em}they always call Billy ‘Hoochy-Coochy’ because he invariably says that whenever he comes on stage{em}entered [Charlie] Hoyt's room..and stole a new song.]

4) Gank - The OED doesn't have anything about gank meaning:

quote:

To steal or to rob. Originally an underworld term, “gank” went mainstream in the late 1990s. The first printed reference appeared in the Tribune in 1989.

Instead it cites an obscure definition from 1747 meaning a red color:

quote:

1747 HOOSON Miner's Dict. Iivb, Gank, a Soil lying in some Veins of a very Red or Yellow colour, sometimes Branching and Spreading itself in small Strings or Joynts to the Rachill, by which Signs it is very probable a Vein may be discovered; some Veins are naturally much inclined to it, such we call Gankey Veins. Ibid. Sijb, The Joynts in it are of a red Colour, or gankey.

That definition might have originated in Chicago.

On the whole, I'd say, take that article with a grain of salt!