A listener has spent the last 30 years looking for the origin of the playful phrase “you’re the berries.” This affectionate expression first appears in literature in the 1908 book Sorrows of a Showgirl, then made its way into popular slang by the 1920s. However, it seems to disappear during the next decade, and it remains only as a relic heard in the vernacular of those who lived during the era. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “You’re the Berries”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha. This is Mark in La Crosse, Wisconsin. How are you?
Hello, Mark. I’m fine. And yourself?
I’m wonderful, and I’m thrilled to be talking to you.
I have been on about a 30-year quest to solve the world’s greatest mystery.
Whoa.
My maternal grandfather had an expression,
You’re the berries.
And it usually followed with somebody saying something ridiculous.
And it was kind of an affectionate term.
Everybody smiled.
He said it mostly to my maternal grandmother.
Grandfather was Norwegian.
Grandmother was German.
And literally for about 30 years, I have been trying to figure it out.
When the Internet came out, I’d find an easy answer to this.
It always sounded French to me, even though they’re German or Norwegian.
It just has that French sound.
But I’ve had friends that I’ve gotten over the Internet, you know, Facebook and what, and I can’t, no one knows.
I’ve asked people from France, people from Sweden, people, I’ve lived in 10 states,
And everybody kind of scratches their head and says, well, it sounds nice.
Why do you think French might come into play?
I don’t, it’s just, I don’t know. Berries, beret, who knows, Grant?
I see. The berries, how?
Grant, you are the berries, by the way.
Thanks, man.
He is the berries.
Well said, well said.
Well, if it was 1920 or 1930, I’d be flattered.
And what am I, the chopped liver?
No.
What year were your grandparents born?
1895.
1895.
Okay, so by the 1920s, they’re in their 20s, right?
Mid-20s, right?
Yeah, right.
Very good.
I ask because this really pops up on the scene.
In the 1920s and the 1930s, you see it show up in plays and books
In newspaper stories, fiction and nonfiction, and so forth.
And there’s a slightly older form of it that was first.
And that’s to say that somebody is all to the berries.
Martha, she’s all to the berries.
And I have no idea what it means.
That’s weird.
Unfortunately, I can’t really help you, Mark.
Your mystery continues.
Oh, no.
No way.
You’re kidding me, right?
I think the answer is in that gigantic warehouse where they’ve locked away the Ark of the Covenant.
Because I don’t have it.
Oh, no.
And don’t feel bad.
I mean, the only reference I’ve ever found is a Rodgers and Hart song from 1931.
Yeah.
No one else knows either.
Well, you can do more with that.
The first use that I know of and the first use that any of the dictionaries that I have has is from 1908.
There’s a book called The Sorrows of a Showgirl, The Story of the Great White Way.
Of course, it’s about a showgirl’s life on Broadway in New York City by Kenneth McGaffey, published 1908.
You can find it in full text on Google Books, and it’s used in there.
It says, say, that piece of work that stands on the end opposite you is all to the berries, ain’t she?
And it’s talking about a woman.
All to the berries.
That piece of work, right?
I don’t know that that’s the origin of it.
I doubt it.
It might have been a popular book.
I have no way of really knowing.
But certainly it’s the first use on record that I can find, the first use that any of my colleagues can find.
And by the 1920s, it was well known enough that it can be used in newspaper stories, commentaries and one-off columns, kind of Walter Winchell style stuff, gossip pages, without any kind of real quote marking around or any kind of offsetting to indicate that it was strange or unusual.
But by the end of the 1930s, its use kind of just faded away.
It became a slang relic of the past.
And now you’ll only find it, as you did, if you’re browsing those old songs or reading those old books or looking in the old newspapers.
Or if your grandparents are still alive.
Okay, well, then I’ll call you again sometime because I have a couple more.
Oh, please, please do.
So we’ll stay in touch.
All right, thanks, Mark.
Okay, thank you.
Take care.
You are the berries.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Thanks.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
And no raspberries to you, Martha.
Maybe that’s it.
Maybe that’s it, raspberries.
I don’t know.
That’s a negative.
Yeah, that’s true.
Boy.
If you’ve got a question like, Mark, something’s been stumping you for decades, you can call us.
30-year quest.
30 years.
Or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
