Lookit!

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. I’m Susan Moody, and I’m from the Adirondack Mountains in New York State.

Hi, Susan.

Hi, Susan. Welcome to the program.

Hi. Hi, Martha.

Hiya. What’s going on?

Well, I have a question about an expression that I apparently use. I hadn’t realized I’d used it until it was pointed out. It’s look it. And usually it is used as kind of an instruction or a warning before I’m about to hold forth with some information. So I was wondering if it might be an influence of Canada, the French Canadians, or possibly an Irish influence because I’m from a family of Irish people.

And you’ve used this all your life and it was just recently pointed out to you?

Well, you know, I must have been, but I hadn’t even noticed it. My husband had pointed it out to me, and after he did, I noticed that some family members used it. And it’s used as an imperative, you know. It’s like, look it. I’m going to tell you how it is.

-huh, -huh.

And I’m just wondering if it’s regional.

Your husband didn’t grow up there?

No, my husband is from England.

I see.

And he’s a bit of a nitpicker with a word usage.

-huh.

So what happened the first time you said that to him?

Well, I think it wasn’t the first time that he said something. It was probably after, you know, a few times he just pointed out that it’s a strange kind of expression.

Oh, bless his heart.

So he bit his tongue for a while.

Yeah.

I guess they might say, see here.

See here.

-huh.

Yeah, that’s funny. I never heard this expression until I was in my 20s. What about you, Grant?

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Really?

Yeah, I knew it in Missouri. I remember commenting on it. I remember it was a way that you could make fun of certain kids who did use it.

Oh, really?

Yeah, look it, look it. Because they’re always saying, look it. Look it. Look at this, look at that. You’re like, look it. No, it’s look.

Yeah, I do tend to associate it more with kids. And I think of this wonderful Peanuts cartoon. I don’t know if you ever saw this one, but Charlie Brown’s little sister keeps saying, lookit, lookit, lookit. And in the last frame he says, okay, okay, I am lookiting.

It’s interesting. The earliest reference I see to it, just looking quickly, is from a 1917 publication that’s talking about lookit used among schoolchildren for look. And it notes that it’s in northeastern Ohio and apparently recent. So maybe it’s only been around for a century or so.

My son-in-law, who grew up in Thunder Bay in Canada, said that he heard it when he was growing up.

Oh, really? Really?

So that’s why I thought maybe the Canadian kind of thing drifted down, because we’re pretty close to the Canadian border.

Right, right.

So, Martha, do you think that it’s a form of look at?

Yes.

That doesn’t really make sense either. Is it?

Oh, I think so.

Yeah.

Look at this?

Yeah.

So we’ve kind of clipped off the this and just left look at?

So it’s more like look at rather than look at?

Well, I don’t know that we can say for sure, but that makes sense to me. I feel like it probably arose from the language of children.

-huh.

And that’s why it’s an imperative kind of a thing. They want attention and want them to pay attention.

Yeah, look it, look it.

But I would say it’s definitely more northern than southern.

Yeah.

I didn’t hear it my whole life.

Well, look it, Susan, we’re delighted that you called.

Well, thank you.

Thank you so much, Susan. Take care of yourself.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

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