A swinging song by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra called “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” drops the line “What a gal, a real pipperoo.” A homeschooling family in Maine wonders just what a pipperoo is. For one, the suffix -eroo is a jokey ending sometimes added for comic effect, as with switcheroo and flopperoo. Pipperoo may derive from a particularly desirable type of apple called a pippin. And the jokey suffix -eroo is added for comic effect, as with switcheroo and flopperoo. So calling someone a pipperoo is fond way of saying, in effect, you’re a peach. This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...