Here's what etymology.com says: "Worry wart first recorded 1956, from comic strip 'Out Our Way' by U.S. cartoonist J.R. Williams (1888-1957). According to those familiar with the strip, Worry Wart was the name of a character who caused others to worry, which is the inverse of the current colloq. meaning."
March 03, 2007, 13:58
tinman
The OED Online's first citation for worry wart was from 1956:
quote:
1956 I. BELKNAP Human Problems of State Mental Hospitals x. 177 The persevering, nagging delusional groupwho were termed ‘worry warts’, ‘nuisances’, ‘bird dogs’, in the attendants' slang.
It doesn't list worry wort. It does, however, list worryguts:
quote:
worrygutsdial. and colloq. = worry wart; freq. as a term of address
1932Somerset Year Bk. 83 The missis, who be a prapper worryguts.
WORRYWORT, n. A person who tends to worry habitually and often needlessly [Compound of worry and wort] Context and source: "The people in charge of making sure an HMO stays solvent seemed like worrywarts." (US News, 24 November 1997)
It's interesting in that it spells it worrywort, but in the souce given it says worrywarts. Seems like there's a mistake somewhere. The Rice University Neologisms Database has the same entry.
Someone else asked this on another forum, and JGF replied on November 11, 2002: "Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary dates it to 1936, but doesn't provide an origin."
Tinman
March 04 - corrected spelling typoThis message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
March 04, 2007, 09:22
shufitz
quote: etymology.com says: "Worry wart first recorded 1956 quote: The OED Online's first citation for worry wart was from 1956
Well, Google NewsArchive lists 1,320 pre-1956 usages, though many use it to name the comic character. The all-caps cites are probably the comic strip inself.
On scan, though, a 1943 blurb seems on point: "Sho had never known Jim was a worry wart, and now she was flaming with disappointment and New Orleans." Edit: back to 1939: "For Heaven's sake, Jan, don't you turn into worry wart."
March 04, 2007, 14:43
tinman
I went to the link you sent, Shufitz, and narrowed the search dates to 1990-1937, then to 1900-1934, and so on till I came up with this from Sep 20, 1930:
quote:
Coshocton Tribune (Newspaper) - September 20, 1930, Coshocton, Ohio Subscription - Coshocton Tribune - NewspaperArchive - Sep 20, 1930... Bill Clark, Lauri Worry Wart and Tom Craig, in- dicates that the backfield will be reconstructed aiound these stars of last years fresh team. ...
It's a subscription service, so I couldn't access it, but I could access one from May. 13, 1940:
Often it is pathetic rather than funny. The people it depicts are simple, worried U. S. proletarians: weedy, bedraggled cowhands, tintypical Americans of a generation ago. Some of them (the shambling, baggy Negro Big Ick, the fiddle-case-footed shop foreman "Bull of the Woods," the blowzy, ingeniously self-thwarting moppet "Worry Wart") are as real to newspaper readers as their own cousins. Its homely humanity, bleak realism, and salty, Mark Twainish humor have attracted the attention of Americana-collecting highbrows, have earned for its author the title "Will Rogers of the Comic Strip."
Tinman
Oct. 17, 2007 - updated link to Cowboy CartoonistThis message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,
March 04, 2007, 18:29
Kalleh
Hmmm, another error in the OED.
That last quote of yours, Tinman, has one of my favorite words: blowzy
March 05, 2007, 12:49
jerry thomas
When brewers express preocupation and anxiety about the outcome of the fermentation process are they becoming worry worts?
FWIW
October 17, 2007, 03:02
hello
I wonder if it has anything to do with St John's wort, which alleviates stress (worry)
October 17, 2007, 07:54
arnie
Hello, hello!
The word/phrase seems to have been "worry WART" at first. However, purely as a guess, possibly because of people's connections with St John's Wort, it has often become "worry WORT".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
October 17, 2007, 21:07
Kalleh
Welcome, hello!
I tried to find out something online about the origin of St. John's Wort, but I couldn't find much.
October 18, 2007, 05:30
zmježd
English wort is a common plant name. It comes from Old English wyrd, and is cognate with Latin rāmus 'branch' and rādix (whence English radical and radish) 'root', Greek ριζα (rhiza) 'root', and German Wurz 'root'. They come from PIE *wrād- 'branch, root'.
